Kerala fishermen lose man-days over 'inaccurate weather alerts'

The increasing number of rough weather alerts over the Arabian Sea and its lack of accuracy has triggered resentment among the fishermen in Kerala over the loss of man-days.

While the fishermen allege that the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) and Kerala State Disaster Management Authority (KSDMA) were over forecasting after the criticisms they faced for inadequate alerts during the 2017 Ockhi that claimed over 140 lives, IMD officials maintain that the changes in climatic conditions were the reason for a higher number of forecasts these days.

According to the fishermen, in the last two months alone fishing ban was imposed for at least 15 days, whereas a rough climate prevailed only on around five or six days. At the same time, there was no adequate warning when three fishermen were killed at Vizhinjam in May following rough weather.

Kerala Swathantra Matsyathozhilali Federation leader Jackson Pollayil told DH that owing to loss of man-days due to the inaccurate weather alerts fishermen were now even tending to flout the restrictions and venture into the sea as their livelihood was being badly hit.

A large chunk of fishermen ventures into the deep sea for weeks-long fishing activities. Hence weather alert systems should be able to give predictions for at least three or four days. In the case of Ockhi also most of the fishermen who died were those who were involved in deep-sea fishing, he said.

Thiruvananthapuram native Sindhu Nepolean, who is associated with researches on marine weather alerts, said that it was quite evident that after Ockhi, the number of weather alerts being issued by the IMD through the KSDMA have gone up. Though the fishermen earlier used to ignore weather alerts as they have their own conventional methods, after the Ockhi the fishermen tend to follow the formal weather alerts.

IMD Thiruvananthapuram Meteorological Centre director K Santhosh said that the agency was not at all involved in over forecasting after Ockhi. The Arabian Sea has been witnessing more weather systems over quite some time and IMD is bound to give alerts depending on its predictions. He also said that the general level of accuracy of weather alert systems in tropical regions is 75 per cent and there was no high level of inaccuracy in IMD's predictions.

Meanwhile, an official at the KSDMA said that they were also quite concerned about the increasing number of weather alerts. They were still issuing alerts based on inputs from IMD. Though KSDMA had roped in the service of three private agencies the data available from those agencies were not yet used for issuing weather alerts to public as it was only under evaluation.