Ban foreign fishing vessels encroaching Bay of Bengal: Acharia

Releasing a Greenpeace Foundation report on future of Indian fisheries, Acharia, also the Chairman of Parliamentary Standing Committee on Agriculture, said the Committee is examining the issue of over-exploitation of fish stock in Indian waters.

The first round of meeting was held recently with the Animal Husbandry department in this regard, he said.

"The proposal for making a new policy to govern fishing activities in our Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) is being examined. It is in the Preliminary Stages and we recently discussed the issue with the Animal Husbandry department," Acharia said.

He has also written a letter to the Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar on the issue expressing his concerns on over-exploitation of several exotic varieties of fishes in the Indian waters.

"But the reply I got from the Agriculture Minister says that the permission given to big fishing trawlers to operate in Indian water is not causing any harm to our interest", he said.

The fishing space available in our national waters is gradually declining and with only 5.4 per cent of fish production, we are lagging behind countries such as China, Japan and even Vietnam, Acharia added.

Rajya Sabha MP from Odisha Rama Chandra Khuntia who is also a member of the Standing Committee added that he will be raising the issue of over-exploitation of fishing areas and its impact on bio-diversity in the coming Rio+20 environment conference. (MORE)