The Desh Bachao-Desh Banao
campaign team of over 30 main activists reached Kakdwip and Jambudwip
islands in the Bay of Bengal, where the forest officials and state
government oficials brutally evicted the fisherpeople in November 2002.
Addressing the press at Jambudwip on this occasion, Thomas Kocherry,
leader of World Fishworkers Forum, said, " the fisherpeople are not even
asking for ownership of land but just to use it for drying fish from
October to February every year, which they have been doing in this
island since 1955." The seasonal fishing community of these islands
are now termed "encroachers" by the West Bengal Government which has
issued an ultimatum for them never to enter the island after March 30th,
2003. Ten thousand families directly depend on this island for their
livelihood and another ten thousand families derive employment from the
process, which produces at least 15,000 tonnes of fish generating
several crore rupees annually.

Though the Government claims to displace the people in the name of
protecting the Sundarbans, it actually plans to hand over the region to
The Sahara Group. It is a shame that even left governments are involved
in such a wicked privatizing process. While states like Maharashtra
challenged the central government order to evict occupants of wild life
sanctuaries, West Bengal government is assisting corporate interests.

The people pledged that they will not leave the Island and are willing
to fight till the end. Under the leadership of Harekrishna Debnath, the
National Fish Workers Forum is adding determination to struggle. The
Fisheries Minister Kiranmaye Nanda (Socialist party) also spoke in
support of the struggle and publicly announced that he would not allow
the people to be evicted.

The Jumbudwip issue typifies the anti-people, pro-corporate policies of
governments, clearing away the poor to make way for the rich and
powerful to take over land, water, and forest resources. On the island,
Medha Patkar inaugurated the Martyrs' Memorial commemorating those
fisher people who were brutally killed as a result of police atrocities
during the cyclone of Nov 12, 2002. She urged the people to take
inspiration from the sacrifice of these martyrs as well as from the
struggling masses all over India, facing such atrocities, and whose
blood is crying for justice.


Sukhendu Bhattacharjee Sanjay Mangala Gopal Philip
Mathew