Muthalapozhi Fishers rely on ease of slow progress in port mouth

Congress workers protested outside Saji Cherian’s residence in Thiruvananthapuram on Tuesday, which raised the problem of bleakness, causing the breakwater channel in Muthalappozhi Harbour to block fishermen. |Picture source: Special arrangement

The Fisherfolk community at the port of Muthalapozhi appears to be slow to diffuse the sand poles of mining, which makes the seabed of the estuary dangerously dangerous for fishing boats and their crews.

Militants at the Congress-backed Indian National Trade Union Congress (INTUC) protested at the port on Tuesday as government “failure” to quickly remove silt from the mouth of the port and continue to threaten the sea fishermen.

Police stopped another group of Intuc activists from attacking the official residence of Fisheries Minister Saji Cherian in the city.

Intuc Regional Secretary VR Pratapan said that if the government cannot ensure the safety of the port to the coastal communities, fishermen will hand over the protests to the minister’s residence and secretariat. He said fishermen may be in danger as the southwest monsoon appears in June.

The church and the local Muslim Jama-at expressed the cause of the fishermen.

The port of Muthalapozhi is located on a scenic coast where the Vamanapuram River meets the Arabian Sea, supports hundreds of traditional fishermen’s families, provides anchorages for a large number of fishing boats, and is one of the main fish landing centers in southern Kerala. The port is estimated to be 26 kilometers away from the city.

Fishermen complained that the sandbank greatly reduced the depth of the port’s mouth, triggering strong conflict currents and vortexes strong enough to suck the ship into its vortexes.

Fishermen die

According to government data, at least 14 fishermen have died, with as many as 150 accidents in Muthalapozhi since 2022, with several injured. Rupees, including ships and the Nets, were also lost to the sea.

Mr. Saji Cherian held a stakeholder meeting in the official conference hall of his secretariat to mitigate the threat to fishermen.

Fishermen hope more dredgers will remove the sand from government contracted companies every day three times the weight of sand to make the port’s mouth fall off.

The government has quickly directed a dredger to conduct diversion operations in Chettuva, Thrissur. It also considers the deployment of cutting machine suction machines in the mouth of the port as a sustainable solution to mitigate silt.

The coalition government approved the proposal of Rs 17.7 billion under Pradhan Mantri Matsya Sampada Yojana, and the state began the tender process.