Indigenous Technical Knowledge Of Indian Marine Fisherman With Reference to Climate Change

Abstract

For fishermen, the knowledge about sea is vital for their survival. Over the years, fishermen have accumulated vast knowledge about the sea and most of them consider the Sea as the “Mother” or “Goddess” replete with feelings and expressions. Many of the expressions are related to some reasons and this information is being passed on from one generation to another. Most of the ITKs’ are climate related, like indications of storm, indications of tsunami, indications of good catch and less catch etc., These insights and adaptive skills of fisher folk are often derived from many years of experience and may be called cultural traditions which have co-evolved with the local environments. These information often have been communicated and learned through family members over generations. Such knowledge systems may pertain to various cultural norms, social roles, or physical conditions such as the climate or lunar cycles. Obviously, decisions to use these ideas are not based on empirical measurements or cost-benefit analyses, as in conventional modern science. In some cases, the knowledge is based on unique epistemologies, philosophies, intuitions, and principles, which differ from modern scientific tenets. At CMFRI, under the project National Initiative on Climate Resilient Agriculture (NICRA), collection of Indigenous Technical Know-how was carried out on an all India basis, from all the maritime States. A write shop, the first of its kind, was organised at the Mangalore Research Centre of CMFRI, for discussing the ITKs’ collected from various States and also to discuss the scientific truth underlying these beliefs. The write shop was the first step towards incorporating, validating, pretesting the ITKs’ collected by the scientists in the project with respect to climate change, in the respective State’s before evolving in to a book form. The Scientists, technical staff, scholars, artists and fishermen, from eight maritime states presented their ITKs’ collected at this forum. As many as 200 ITKs’ were presented and discussed upon. Out of these, ITKs’ those which were found to be more common and scientifically valid were included in the book. This publication is based on the outcome of the discussions and findings from the write shop, which give an overview of ITKs’ prevailing in marine fisheries, with special reference to climate change. This compilation will provide the state-of-the art overview of best practices and experiences which can be blended with the modern scientific knowledge, to benefit all the stakeholders involved in marine fisheries. Many a literature speaks of the traditional knowledge among fisher folk, but there is a dearth of systematic documentation of the existing ITKs’ in a scientific ensemble. Documentation of the valuable ITKs’ with respect to climate change have been undertaken at the field level in the respective states of Gujarat, Maharashtra, Karnataka and Kerala along the west coast and West Bengal, Odisha, Andhra Pradesh and Tamilnadu along the east coast of India. The book represents an important contribution towards achieving the goal of establishing international responsibility for the ethical collection, preservation, dissemination and application of fishers knowledge, for the benefit of human kind. I compliment the team lead led by Dr. P.U. Zacharia and Dr. P.S. Swathi lekshmi for bringing out this compilation