As a keen observer of how wetlands and humans interact and more specifically of Loktak, one is curious about how many fishermen and fisherwomen depend on this vast wetland. In Meitei language everyone knows fishermen and fisherwomen as ‘Loktak Ngami’. Ngamis means fishers. It does not differentiate male or female. One tends to appreciate them in poetry, songs, and even in some government documents, but a little scratch reveals that the state of Manipur has not even counted them. I decided to enquire the Directorate of Fisheries (DF), Government of Manipur just of their numbers and those households who day after day feeds our markets. This article took me 10 months to finally write about one critical single point, “they do not exist. We just consume their fish”.
After I filed an RTI on 09th May 2024, the first response from Director Mr. Heishnam Balkrishna of Directorate of Fisheries came on 14 June 2024 with two enclosed responses from Imphal West District Fishery Officer (DFO-W) and another one from Bishnupur DFO (DFO-B).
The DFO-W provided the number of captured fishing Households (HH) at Imphal West side of Loktak . They are Mayang Imphal (500 HH), Sekmaijin (40 HH), Tongam & Phoubakchao (200 HH), Komlakhong Makha Leikai (50 HH), Komlakhong Yumnam Leirak (30 HH), Konuma (20 HH) and Laphupat Tera (620 HH) with a total of 1460 HH. Since it is the data of HHs the number of individuals engaged in capture fishing at Loktak is not provided. Upon some enquiry to locals, they have raised doubts about these numbers. However what is more concerning is that the DF has missed villages of Wangoi, Samurou, Shamusang Santipur, Upokpi, fishing villages. Why and how is it that DFO-IW have left out not one but four villages from their census? I also found that even these HH numbers could be just made up numbers by the DFO as we will see later in this article.
To understand this lackadaisical District Fishery Offices we need to also see how the Bishnupur DFO responded. In the case of DFO-B have reported a total number of 6910 Fishers and not as HHs as reported by DFO-IW. So it seems different districts have their own ways of conducting census.
In the response of DFO-B a list of 34 villages with their population of fishers were provided. For example Toubul village is listed with a total of 500 fishers. There are two critical issues here. One, there are at least 54 villages in an around loktak in Bishnupur District and hence the list provided by DFO-B is short of 20 villages. Where and why have they vanished in this official data. Are there no more fishers in these missing villages or that the DF have no knowledge of these fishing villages.
Second, these numbers of fishers given are contested. DF says these numbers are provided by the Gram Sabhas and DF have no knowledge at all. In fact they have never in their 50 years of existence have bothered to conduct any census of the fishing villages of Loktak.
A follow-up RTI was submitted to FD asking the names of these HHs and fishers on 6th September 2024. There was no response from the FD for a month. So a complaint followed on 18 October. No response for a month. Then I approached the Manipur Information Commission on 13 December 2024 seeking help to access these details. On the day of the Hearing of the Commission on 14 January 2025, the following written response came. One, the DFO-IW provided “Information/data” of Names of HHs. Second. then it says “As regards information/data in respect of Bishnupur District, the concerned District Fishery Officer is not in a position to provide information as no specific census has been conducted so far”. In the verbatim confession of the DF during one of the Hearings at the office of the RTI Commissioner that they know only the number of fishers in each village but they have no names of fishers. How on the earth did the DF come up with numbers of fishers without any names? Further, it says, “The Department of Fishery, Government of Manipur has not taken up a census/survey of the fishing families and villages (both capture and culture) of Manipur and Loktak lake as well so far”.
It is disgraceful and deeply worrying that the state of Manipur have gathered no information of who is engaged in fishing as their primary livelihood activity. If census of the two of the most fish producing districts have not been conducted so far —the state have done nothing as a foundation for developing fishery. The basis for doing anything statist is data. The basis for planning and policy making is data. Have the DF, which was founded in 1979, been making decisions based on intuition or anecdotal experiences and possibly by the whims and fancies (read as corruption and favoritism) of those at the top. How has been the basis of the implementation of schemes like the Pradhan Mantri Matsya Sampada Yojana, Loktak Livelihood Mission or any other fishing related schemes taken up by the state or the center. Etc without knowing who are fishers in the state? One of my next articles will elaborate the whims and fancies of a particular scheme of the state in the absence of any data.
Why do we need good data for Loktak and this includes fishers, fish species, bird count, fauna and flora, water quality etc. At least LDA have counted the birds if not the fishers. And for the DF, as a designated office of the state, it ought to at least understand the fishers and their production. The fact that DF does not have an idea of how many fishers, both culture and capture, exist both in Loktak and in the whole of the state indicates how unprepared we are as a state in fish production. Much has been repeated by politicians how they are preparing to meet the gap in fish production but then it turns out that these are all but hollow talks.
In the next articles I shall look at how the fishing population of Loktak are looked at by the state and shall make an attempt to describe a fishing village.
The writer is a social activist.
