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In the search of maroris

This story portrays the life of poverty stricken coastal children, who collect maroris (local name), an eatable item looks like a tinny bamboo covered with shelf, live inside narrow burrows in the sea mud. Catching crabs and collecting marori– a family of precious sea snails– from the mangroves plants and muddy area near the isolated beaches is attractive job for minor children of fishermen community. Mostly these children themselves are bread earners of their poor families.

These marine species provide better source of livelihood to a large number of children living at the isolated islands off the Karachi beaches.

Several children originally belong to coastal villages of Karachi, live with relatives at far off island villages and work as daily wager, collecting such items for middlemen, who supply the same to the local market. Mostly boys drop salt into the mouth of scattered burrows with small stick and marori comes out rapidly, which they collect.

These boys and girls travel long distance in the search of crabs and sometimes spend whole day to collect maroris from the far off beaches, because they have almost emptied the nearby beaches.

They said these unaware children do not know how they are destroying their own resources. Greedy traders offer sufficient amount to children, engaging them to collect everything that is available near beaches and their abodes. These children should be enrolled in schools to save their future, but the reason these children themselves narrate is that majority of them belongs to poor families and themselves are bread earners.

Some of the elders living at the islands said crabs and snails are sea creatures, to whom they never tried to destroy, calling it natural wealth. But now the poverty has compelled many people, who if not catch more fish, engage their children to collect maroris. He said at beaches like Karachi, there are no maroris visible. These are far off beaches near mangroves forests and muddy island zones.  According to the community elders snails keep the sea water clean.

Middlemen visiting there frequently buy such items, paying Rs25 per kg to children. But at the village jetties they resell the same item costly, at Rs125–175 per kg. Sharing their experience, elders say, there is a chain of this trade and marori is a valuable item, attracts foreign market.

There are some warehouses and small factories near coastal villages of Ibrahim Hydri and Rehri, in which women and children boil these sea species and get stuff, which after processing and packing is being exported to other countries.

Elder community people recalling the past blissful days say maroris were available at the all beaches for long but they never collected it. Now the poverty, declining fish catch and joblessness have forced the community youth to collect it for the sell.

You can read the story at http://magazine.thenews.com.pk/mag/moneymatter_detail.asp?id=4883&magId=10&catId=78

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Impacts of changing weather on communities living at islands inside reservoir

This story depicts the impacts of dam on the life and livelihoods of the desert communities living at the 14 small island villages, located inside Chotiari Reservoir.

Mostly, these people residing there through their forefathers depend on herds grazing and fishing. The villagers fear that erosion by the reservoir water may deplete islands and cause their displacement soon. Recalling the past, they say that they were living a happy life long before the development of Chotiari reservoir. But now it seems their lives and sources of living are at stake.

Elderly people of these island villages are eye witness of the changing weather pattern, depleting grazing fields and its impacts on their life.

The reservoir covered a huge complex of scattered lakes in the desert area.

Before developing reservoir for irrigating lands of some influential people in Umerkot district, the fishermen had small boats using for their livelihood. Now only a small number of fishermen have replaced their tinny boats with bigger ones to continue their livelihood. Otherwise, majority of fishermen still use small boats and harvest nets near the bank of the reservoir. They have valid reason of staying away from entering the reservoir to avoid any loss.

Looking to these threats some families have started migrating to other fresh water bodies in Punjab and Khyber Pukhtoon Khuwa provinces to ease their families there. This trend is increasing because of erosion. But the case of herdsmen is quite different as they have herds of cows, goats and camels living at scattered islands in the reservoir through forefathers. They do not have a place where they can shift their herds and live safely to continue their family occupation.

The islands spread over five—10 sq kilometer area are attractive for these herdsmen families, where herds move to the area without shepherded and return at the evening. There is no law and order situation.

The other problem these people are facing is building of roads from the sand dunes for oil and gas exploring companies. These firms’ officials use dynamite and such devises, which cause disturbing livestock and wildlife species. Sometimes these animals leave the area in fear after trembling earth.

Herdsmen sharing their experiences say that sometimes they face problems, while they do not receive their animals and travel long distance to trace them.