Impact of COVID-19 Pandemic Lockdown on Small Scale Fishers (SSF) Engaged in Floodplain Wetland Fisheries: Evidences from Three States in India

The COVID-19 pandemic has created unprecedented human health crisis in recent global history with rippling social and economic effects. The outbreak in India has resulted in emergency lockdown in the country for more than two months and that caused decline in the fish catch has severely affected the life and livelihoods of the fishers. The wetlands offers tremendous scope for expanding both culture and capture based fisheries for livelihood security of fishers. They also play a key role in socio-economic development by generating employment and livelihood in the studied regions. In the present study a systematic rapid assessment was conducted to find the impact of COVID-19 lockdown on floodplain wetland fisheries in India to evaluate the impact of lockdown on wetland fisheries production, income and food access. We undertook a rapid telephone survey with 176 wetland fishers in 3 states. Fishers of three Indian States Bihar, West Bengal, and Assam lost 20, 25, and 9 fishing days respectively. Fish harvest during March to May was 32, 44 and 20 percentage lower respectively than the previous year in Bihar, West Bengal and Assam. Fishers of Bihar, West Bengal and Assam lost income of INR 10000/-, 12500/- and 4500/-due to lockdown. Demand supply gap during the lockdown led to the in 20–40 percent increase in farm gate price of fishes at the wetland level. The wetland fisheries potential to contribute to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) ‘eradication of poverty’; ‘zero hunger’ and ‘good health and well being’ have also been considerably impacted due to this pandemic. The paper discusses several magnitudes of immediate impacts of lockdown on floodplain wetland fishers livelihood, income and food access, highlights issues and suggests strategies, advisories and decisions support to mitigate the impact.