FISHING COMMUNITIES OF NORTH COASTAL ANDHRA PRADESH, INDIA

Rajesh Patnaik
*
Settlements

The fishing communities in Andhra Pradesh especially the North coastal Andhra have three
major caste communities namely Jalari, Vade alija and Palli! "#ee $%&$ 'ensus of (ndia
report)! According to a rough estimate there are nearly *+& coastal villages in Andhra
Pradesh!

The marine fishing communities live in settlements along the coastal elt generally
many of the traditional settlements are right on the seashore, ut ,e may e-pect them to
e found till aout * kilometres inland! The situation of settlement is dependant on
multiple factors! The coastal geomorphology is important ut also the autting under,ater
topography is also important! These factors play an important role in the distriution of
schools of fish and their seasonal migration and movement!

(f ,e consider fish as a resource availale in the sea ,aters then their distriution
pattern ,ould in some ,ays have the earing on the location of their settlements! .pen
sea is in itself uniform oth from the coastal indents, ays and jetting of hillocks into the
,aterfronts and from the vie, point of under,ater terrain! The inland ,ater fishing
communities asically use rivers, streams, lakes and tanks they are found near these
,ater odies! The fish are sold or artered as fresh fish, dried fish and in last /uarter of
century ice is eing used for preserving fish for a day or t,o

Fish consumption

The use of fish as a food resource is not documented at an acceptale level in the #tate!
The consumption pattern itself is not clearly kno,n0some aspects of fish taoo are
highlighted in anthropological ,orks! The rate of consumption of fish among the fishing
communities as a food supplement needs to e documented!

Fish consumption ! non "ishin# #ene$%l communities

1ish is consumed y almost all the non vegetarian communities in Andhra Pradesh! The
consumption of no vegetarian food in rural areas is rather lo, and usually a family eats
non vegetarian curry only once a ,eek! The role of fish oth dried as ,ell as fresh is very
limited and the /uantity is almost unkno,n!

2ut the availaility of fresh or fro3en fish is not uniform4there are a large numer of
factors ,hich govern the distriution of fish to non fishing communities! .ne of it is the
communication links, traditional routes of transfer and marketing net,orks! 2artering
fresh fish ,ith neighouring farming communities ,as usually the practice, ut this must
have een in very limited /uantity! 5ried fish ,hich can e stored and sold in traditional
shandies must have een the main centre for artering!

Fishin# technolo#!

Traditional fishing technology is ,ell evolved much of it has een ,ell elaorated in recent
research paper on the North 'oastal Andhra! The other areas also need to e carefully
researched for any differences in fishing technology!

Fish h%it%ts %n& Se%son%l mi#$%tions

1ish of different species prefer different types of under,ater terrain6 some need
under,ater rock structures to shield themselves from the strong currents6 and also ,here
there food is availale! #ome of the fish are seaed feeders and prefer to s,im on the
sand floor of sea ottom and the same time certain of the fish are surface feeders and the
s,im of the top layer of the ,aters!

Su##estions "o$ $ese%$ch 'ith %n %nth$opolo#ic%l pe$specti(e

The #ocio7cultural Anthropological approach to the study of fishing communities can e
designed as an inductive village level study can e undertaken! The selection of village is
of vital concern as this type of study as it is akin to ,hat is kno,n as 8village studies9 A
village is taken as a unit! The environmental parameters oth on shore, foreshore, and
seaed do play an important role in the total techno7cultural adaptation!
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*#ocial Anthropologist! Plot :*, 5aspalla ;ills Visakhapatnam7<=&&&=, (ndia
rajesh&&%>gmail!com
1urther reading?
Rajesh Patnaik! @Acology of 1ood Taoos and 1ishing Technology? A 'omple- #ystem of Resource
Partitioning Among Jalari of North 'oastal Andhra PradeshB! The Anthropologist Vol! % No * pp $*<7
$=< April, *&&C!