It is not KKNP but Coastguard’s inability to protect EEZ resulting in reduction of fish catch, says former AEC chairman

Chennai:

The fish catch in Indian waters has been reduced due to Coast Guard’s inability to stop poaching of fish from India’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ) by fishing trawlers from other countries and not due to Koodankulam nuclear plant, according to M R Srinivasan, former atomic energy commission chairman.

The former AEC chairman said in a recent newsletter released by Nuclear Power Corporation of India on its website on Monday that intensive use of trawlers and other sophisticated fishing methods besides poaching of fish from India’s exclusive economic zone by fishing trawlers of other countries has reduced the fish catch.

“This happens because of the inability of the Indian Coast Guard to patrol our seas,” Srinivasan said in the Public Awareness e-newsletter of Koodankulam Nuclear Power project.

He also said that other factors like effluents from chemical industry, untreated sewage and agrochemicals being washed into the sea are other factors resulting in reduced fish catch.

“These factors are very serious and need to be addressed urgently. Kudankulam Nuclear Plant is not putting out any effluent that might harm fish life,” he said to a query on the problems faced by people engaged in fishing in the newsletter