Today some unusual places of Udaipur has turned into a hot-spot for fish catchers; more than a dozen men laced with all fishing equipment jumped into the water canal at UIT Bridge to grab the partially visible fishes under the shallow water coming from lakes Fateh Sagar and Swaroop Sagar.

At morning around 10.00 am we spotted several people leaning down seeing fish hunting under the gradually flowing water beneath UIT Bridge where both Lake Fatehsagar and Lake Swaroop Sagar’s water merge to turn the canal into a river which connects Ayad River and further goes to Lake Udaisagar.

Since channel gates of both lakes has been closed down to stop the overflowing, the flow of water came down and due to this fishes which flowed from the lakes stopped in the shallow water making themselves a easy chase.

20 years old Altaf who was waiting for this moment told that they catch fishes for their own consumption and not for commercial purpose but some sources reject these claims as they assert that these people sell fishes in the local fish market of Udaipur.

Interestingly, catching fish is not unlawful as the breeding period of fishes has already passed away, Rajaram Shrivastav, head of department of fisheries says, “It is unlawful to catch fishes from June 15 to August 31, but since that period has already passed away, fishing could not be restricted.”

But fishing by common public is restricted as it is a mass revenue generating business of district administration who allots contracts to fishing companies. However, these small time local fish hunters have become a cause of heavy loss to administration but there was no one to stop them.

We also saw a few policemen on the UIT Bridge watching these hunters catching fish but could not stop them. When enquired, Ratan Chawla, police officer from Hathipol Police Station said, “Fishing is prohibited for a certain period of time and according to law (IPC 3) a fine of Rs.1500 to Rs.5000 is applicable.”

Is such public hunting of fishes acceptable under both administrative and social grounds? Isn’t it a nuisance and a theft? Administration should act against it but they have not yet, may be they are waiting for another round of whistle blow by all local media.

So here we go: Whistling!