Social change and ecological health
Pozhiyoor in Thiruvananthapuram district was Bacchus's own land. The fishing community here has survived for generations by fishing in the natural reefs. In recent times, with the destruction of the natural reefs due to mechanised fishing through trawlers, the community took to illegal distillation of country liquor. The lure of easy money drew almost all the families. The protection of the local liquor mafia followed. According to estimates by of the Programmme for Community Organisation (PCO), a Thiruvananthapuram-based non-governmental organisation, the settlement was doing liquor business worth Rs 50 lakh a month. Government efforts to stop the nefarious trade resulted in violent conflicts between the police and the residents.
"There was no hope of involving the community to stop the trade,' says J B Rajan of PCO. Things turned for the better when the local church intervened. Some residents agreed upon closing distilleries. But there was no alternative occupation as the natural reefs were damaged. The traditional knowledge of the fisherfolk came good, as did the financial assistance from the state's department of fisheries and technical expertise of PCO.
The residents initiated an artificial reef programme to attract fish to the seashore. It was for the rehabilitation of not only the fisherfolk but also the marine ecology. If artificial reefs attract fish, fisherfolk stop tapping the exhausted natural reefs, allowing them breathing space for regeneration. Examples were already there. In 1949, during World War II, a Japanese ship sank near a fishing settlement. It
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