Fish of the Sea and Salt of the Earth: Struggle of Honnavar dry fishers

At the mouth of the Sharavathi river where the river meets the Arabian Sea at Kasarkod Tonka, lies one of Karnataka's most important traditional fishing commons. The beach here is not just a beach. For generations, it has been a fish drying yard, a market, and a home.

A Women-Centric Livelihood

Tonka is an intergenerational fishing community. While men go to sea, fish drying, trading and selling is almost entirely run by women.

According to studies, there are about 150 active dried fish processors at Kasarkod village, down from about 500 a decade ago, while local estimates put the number of women engaged in traditional dry fish processing at around 2000. They belong to Hindu Kharvi and Gabit communities, and also Christian and Muslim families. 

They dry 11-13 varieties of fish - mainly anchovies, mackerel, sardines, ribbon fish - on the open sunny beach with clean sea air. The method is simple and ancient: gut, wash with water from the jetty, salt, and sun-dry for 2-3 days on coir mats and nets. The product is then sold directly to consumers, to hinterlands traders, and now even to buyers as far as Vijayawada in Andhra Pradesh. 

Medha Patkar of NAPM was heard on social media after her maiden some months ago during her visit to Tonka, Kasarkod "Dried fish from Honnavar are sold across Asia. This too is development, while maintaining dignified women-centric livelihoods."

The Commons Under Threat

Since 2016-17, this commons has been under severe threat from the proposed Honnavar Port Private Limited which is Rs 600 crore private port for coal, iron ore and general cargo planned on 44 hectares across five villages - Tonka 1, Tonka 2, Pavinkurva, Mallukurva and Honnavar Rural. 

The fisherfolk say surveyors came one day and "forcibly demolished the area we used to dry fish". A 3-4 km four-lane link road to National Highway 66 is attempted to be built through what was earlier just beach and Olive Ridley turtle nesting ground. 

Local fishers say the road runs through CRZ-III, a no-development zone, and is part of the coastal commons used for drying fish for generations. Heavy trucks carrying coal and ore will pollute the air, making drying impossible. They expressed fear that once the port materialises, the movement of heavy vehicles would pollute the atmosphere and jeopardise their livelihood. 

The impact is already visible: the dried-fish industry that used to operate on the land stopped functioning after the port authorities took over the land.

More Than Fish

For Tonka, this is not just economic. The beach is also a sporadic nesting site for the endangered Olive Ridley Turtle, which locals worship as an incarnation of Lord Vishnu and help conserve with the Forest Department. Scientists describe this coast as highly erosive and ecologically fragile.

Over 23,500 fisher folk in Honnavar, many of them women, and about 6,000 families who rely on fishing face an existential crisis. 

And yet, the resistance continues as fisherwoman Parwati Datta Tandel quips "We are fighting for our rights. We want our land, our business, and our people. We will lead our lives by doing the fish business". 

The dry fishers of Tonka are a reminder that development cannot be measured only in ports and tonnage. It is also measured in the quiet work of women turning fish under the sun, in food that reaches the poorest plates in India, and in a community that asks only to be left to continue its way of life.

Apeksha R. Tandel

Living in trust with Sea

 Photo credits: Raju D. Tandel

For some, the sea is a tourist spot. For some, a beautiful background for a photo.

But for a fisherman, the sea itself is his mother, the sea itself is his God, the sea itself is his life.

3 o'clock in the morning. When the whole village is in deep sleep, the light is on in the fisherman's house. His wife packs a small bundle of rice and a bottle of water. His children, still half-asleep, say "Papa, come back soon." He touches his child's forehead, folds his hands to God, and walks into the darkness towards the sea.

He has no degree in his hands, no crores of property. He has only one thing - a torn net, an old boat, and a chest full of courage.

The sea never gives a promise. Today the net may be full of fish, tomorrow he may return empty-handed. If the waves get strong, the boat may sink. He risks his very life and goes, not just for himself. When we see fish on our lunch plate at noon and push it aside saying "it's not tasty", we forget that for that one plate of fish, a father has mortgaged his life to the sea.

A fisherman is never greedy. All he wants is for his children's stomachs to be full today. Worrying about tomorrow, he fights with today's wave. Even when there is a cyclone warning, he goes back into the sea to repay a loan, to pay his daughter's fees. Because he has no other way.

We sit in an AC room and complain that "fish has become expensive". But we don't see the price of sweat behind that expense, the salt of tears, the anxiety of a wife who stays awake all night.

How many times have the waves of the sea washed away his dreams, how many times have they shattered his boat. Yet the next morning he stands again in front of the sea with folded hands. That is his strength. The stubbornness to get up even after falling, to cast the net again even after losing - that is what makes him a true hero.

A fisherman is not poor. He is rich. He has patience that we don't have, humility to bow before nature, and a big heart that sees hope for tomorrow even in an empty net.

Next time you go to the seashore, don't just look at the waves. Look at that small boat seen far away. The one sitting inside it is not just a fisherman, he is the provider who risks his life to fill our stomachs.

Let us give him respect. Let us value his hard work.

Apeksha R. Tandel

Refusing to live in Black and White

Book: Refusing to live in Black and White

Author:  Shaweta Anand

Introduction

This is not a grief memoir in the usual sense. Published by Penman Books in 2026, this book by Dr. Shaweta Anand - public health researcher, teacher and writer who studied at JNU starts where most stories of loss end.

Shaweta lost her husband during India's second wave of COVID-19 but the book is less about the event of death and more about the life that society starts writing for you after it.

 The Cover

The cover says it all. A winding road through colourful hills, rivers, sunset - with the title Refusing to Live in Black & White in the middle. It's a visual metaphor. Widowhood in India is often still imagined in black and white - in clothes, in behaviour, in future. She refuses that reduction.

Synopsis

The book moves between two timelines without asking one to cancel out the other:

Before: Her marriage, partnership, and everyday life.

After: Raising her son alone, dealing with family, navigating work, friendships, and identity.

There is no dramatic twist. The power is in the small things - how people start talking to you differently, how invitations change, how you are expected to become smaller to make others comfortable.

"I understood with startling clarity how widowhood can reorganise a woman socially, from a central person to a negotiable presence."

Core Themes

a) Grief vs. Social Script: The book says grief is only half the burden. The other half is the set of quiet assumptions about how a widow should look, behave, parent, work, and imagine her future. Nobody says it directly. Almost everybody believes it anyway.

b) Motherhood after Loss: It is also a story of a son growing up and a mother who stayed - how they both build a life neither of them had planned for. It is honest, occasionally funny, often infuriating.

c) Identity: At its heart, as the author writes, this is a book about refusing to be reduced to a single word - widow - when a person is always several things at once.

d) Systemic Collapse and Human Generosity: She writes about COVID second wave - "Both the systemic collapse and the human generosity deserve naming. Both were real."

Writing Style

Shaweta is not a sentimental writer. She writes like a researcher who is also a storyteller. The language is simple, personal, and observational. The foreword rightly says: This book neither romanticises suffering nor reduces a life to theory. It simply lets personal experience and careful observation illuminate each other.

My Verdict

What I loved: It makes you question your own behaviour - how we hand someone else a script they did not ask for. It is not about "getting over" grief, but about choosing what the rest of life can hold when love remains but the person does not.

Who should read it: Not just widows or people who have faced grief. Anyone interested in gender, family, Indian society, motherhood, and what it means to rebuild.

Rating: 4.5/5 - A quiet, brave, necessary book. It doesn't ask for pity. It asks for space to live in full colour.

Apeksha R. Tandel

Fisherman - The Unseen Hero

 

Our lives don't depend on the waves of the sea but his entire life stands on those waves.

While we are sleeping in our warm beds, he is awake at 3 AM in the morning. The whole village is asleep. A father, with his torn net on his shoulder and a lantern in his hand, walks towards the sea. No one is with him, only his shadow and the sound of the sea.

He doesn't know the weather report. He doesn't know the scientific reason for a tsunami. He knows only one thing - if the wind blows to the east, he will get fish, if it blows to the west, his life is in danger.

When he pushes his boat into the sea, his wife stands on the shore and prays to God. That prayer doesn't stop until he returns. Because she knows the sea is both a mother who gives and a demon who takes away.

Do you know what is in the one basket of fish he brings back? One day's meal, his daughter's new uniform, his son's notebook, and the interest on a loan that can never be repaid. He has never eaten the big fish he himself caught. Thinking, "If I sell this, I will get 500 rupees, I can buy books for my daughter," he smiles even on an empty stomach.

We bargain for 50 rupees in the market. We loudly say "too costly." But we never calculate the 12 hours of darkness, hunger, and fear of death behind that one fish.

He doesn't want government promises, he doesn't want big awards. He wants only one thing - his children should live happily on the shore, they should never have to fight with the sea for their whole life like him.

That is why he is still fighting with the waves today. He is a real hero. Not a hero from the movies, but a real hero who fights with the sea every day for our food.

Apeksha R. Tandel

Standing up for the cause of Planet Earth

Book: 

10 Indian Champions Who Are Fighting To Save The Planet 

by Bijal Vachharajani and Radha Rangarajan:

About the Book:

This is not a textbook. It is a collection of 10 real-life stories of ordinary Indians who became extraordinary environmental heroes. Written for children and teenagers, but inspiring for adults too, the book proves that you don't need to be a scientist or a minister to save the planet - you just need to be a concerned citizen.

The language is very simple, conversational and powerful. Each chapter is beautifully illustrated by different artists, which makes it feel like 10 different storybooks in one.

The 10 Champions - What the book covers:

The book covers all aspects of our environment - water, forests, wildlife, air and waste.

1.  Parineeta Dandekar - The River Champion. The chapter you shared. From Nashik, she fell in love with the Godavari river. At just 14, she called the Pollution Control Board to complain about river pollution. Now she works with SANDRP and fights against destructive dams and protects river ecosystems.

2.  Jadav Payeng - The Forest Man of India. A man who single-handedly grew a 550-hectare forest on a barren sandbar in Assam.

3.  Saalumarada Thimmakka - The mother who planted 385 banyan trees when she had no children of her own.

4.  Rohini Chaturvedi & others who work on waste, wildlife, oceans, and climate change.

Each story follows the same powerful pattern: Childhood Connection -> The Moment They Decided to Act -> The Struggles -> The Impact.

Strengths of the book:

1. Inspiring, Not Depressing: Most books on climate change scare us. This book gives us hope. It shows solutions.

2. Citizen Activism: The biggest lesson from Parineeta's story is what her father told her - "Tell them you are a citizen, that's all." It teaches kids that being a citizen is a superpower.

3. Deep Research, Simple Words: Authors explain complex things like Environmental Clearance, dam reservoirs, siltation, and water democracy in a way a 12-year-old can understand.

4. Truly Indian: It talks about our own rivers like Godavari, our own forests, and our own problems. So we can relate to it instantly.

Who should read it?

Perfect for students from Class 5 to Class 10, for school speeches, essays, book reviews, and for any parent who wants their child to love nature.

Final Verdict:

It is a MUST-READ. In a world of superheroes like Marvel, this book gives us 10 real superheroes.

Rating: 5 / 5 Stars

It will make you ask - "If they can do it, what can I do for my river, my tree, my street?"

Apeksha R. Tandel

Tribute of love to Great Grandma

Today, our family bids a tearful farewell to the strongest root of our family tree. My beloved Great Grandmother Smt. Gange Ramachandra Tandel left us for her heavenly abode on Saturday night at 11:13 PM at Tonka, Kasarkod, Honnavar.

She was not just a person, she was an era. An era of unconditional love, of selfless sacrifice, of endless patience, and of values that held our entire family together.

In her lap, we learned what love means. In her stories, we learned what life means. In her blessings, we found our strength. Her hands that blessed us, her voice that guided us, and her smile that gave us comfort will be missed every single day.

She was part of our existence, and now she will continue to live within us — in our memories, in our traditions, in the warmth of her teachings, and in every prayer of our family.

Though she is not physically with us today, her legacy will live on through generations. We will try to live up to her expectations, her values and her love.

We miss you deeply. We love you forever.

Om Shanti. 

Bhavapurna Shraddhanjali.

Apeksha R. Tandel

Tribute to Gange R. Tandel

Gange Ramachandra Tandel breathed last nearing mid-night at 11.20 pm on 19 September 2026 at her residence at Tonka, Kasarkod, Honnavar, Karnataka. I never got to know her age accurately but certainly know that she lived her life as wife, mother, grand mother and even great grand mother and lived till her ripe old age. I guess she must be anywhere above 80.

I knew her personally from the day stepped in her house on 27 February 2025. I met her dozen times ever since past 19 months. Last few months I have seen her deteriorating health and constant medical attention. 

Whenever I would visit her she would converse with me fondly. She narrated her life time incidents to me. There is much I learned from her.

I learned her hard toiling life not only bring up family but also about her work. She shared close relationship with the Sea. Those days fish used to be bumper. There were no trawlers, no purse seiners, no Ports around. Her husband would catch fish and she would go selling with other village women. She would go far and wide. Tonka was famous for dry fish then. There was no Honnavar Port Private Limited (HPPL) with its marauding presence disrupting dry fishing conquering spaces to dry fish and and rack up dust to trigger dust settling on drying fish in the open. There no heavy truck movements on the roads. She has seen life first hand in Kasarkod, life that was prosperous and courageous.

Gange would often come to Goa markets to sell fish. She visited Margao market often. I was stunned to know from her that she reached in bus to sell dry fish even at Mapusa Market in Goa. This market is so familiar being having being the visitor all my life. Gange would take this extra mile effort Journey to make her living little better, her family little happier.

There would always smile on her face every time I visited her house. She would sit in the balcony and converse with me and I with her till something would distract any of us.

She was witness to police brutalities on 25 February 2025 in her house, in her village. She was lady with enormous courage. I remember when I visited her house two days later on 27 February 2025 she was an exception to everyone around having broken down and let tears out as they began sharing the turmoil. She did not cry. Perhaps she did before meeting me for two days. Perhaps her tears had dried up facing life sorrows. After all she has been in witness to her villagers resisting the Port in Honnavar for last years. She has seen so much about Tonka, Kasarkod, Honnavar that even Chief Secretary of Karnataka Shalini Rajneesh has not.

Gange was first generation women from Tonka and neighbouring villages who were influenced with resistance ideology then led by famous Dr. Kusuma in late 1970s, early 1980s. Gange participated in protests movements then with Dr Kusuma. I saw Dr. Kusuma's photo at Sneha Kunja medical dispensary at Kasarkod some months ago and instantly recognised her having personally interacted with her during her awareness cycle yatra in 1993.

Her participated induced next three generations in her family to resists injustice. I got to know this from her grandson Raju D. Tandel who is NFSF Organising Secretary, Karnataka State few months ago when we pondered on her life.

Gange has been inspiration for her children and grand children and the villagers of Tonka, Karaskod to march forward in the path of resistance in daring manner. And when got glimpse into her life experiences during my visits to her house she inspired me too!

She is the one that society would easily cover under the carpet. Yet her life matters. Her struggle matters. Recognition to get contribution matters. The torch of resistance that she lighted in her family many decades ago matters. This matters because her action has turned her village into subject of history; refusing to be kicked around by Police, Politicians, Beaurecrats and Private Port company - HPPL.

Gange R.Tandel has her share of contribution for she was not just woman fishworker but but someone who demonstrated tremendous sense of Justice and encouraged her family to be in the struggle.

We thank Gange Tandel for the kind of life she lived and kind of legacy she had left behind for us to pick-up the baton and move for her toiling life may be rewarded with peaceful eternal rest.

Heartfelt Condolences to everyone in family.

Sebastian Rodrigues

A Bold Mineral Extraction Narrative about Adivasis of Odisha Struggle

 

Out of This Earth

East India Adivasis and the Aluminium Cartel (Second Edition), Orient Black Swan. 2020. Second edition. Originally published in 2010.

Authors: Samarendra Das and Felix Padel

There already are few dozen reviews of this momentous book. Non-fiction book based on epic struggles over minerals underneath on land inhabited by indigenous people known as adivasis (first settlers) in Eastern State of Odisha in India. Within the local context these adivasis are known as Dongria. They share deep relationship with their beloved mountain -Niyamgiri - whom they worship as Nebaraja. Hence the discourse around midnight extraction is as much about spiritualism as it is of economics, Politics and ecology, if not more.

Book certainly contains expected brilliant analysis of the relationship between corporates-state nexus to hoodwink local people in surrendering their rights and entitlements over bauxite beneath. Additionally book foraged it's scope into two daring terrain. The first one is a critical scrutiny of NGO-corporate nexus to hijack the struggle agenda on ground which is rare and unconventional in books like this as these aspects often get pushed under the carpet of scholarly scrutiny to find its way in public domain. It's a form of extraction by itself that is rewarded with analytical attention it well deserves.

The second terrain is extention of scope of extractive analysis to countries in three more continents - Africa, Latin America and Europe. This makes book truly international in its scope with never vanishing shelf life as the issues raised in the book remains evergreen in its relevance and shine across national and continental boundaries.

From my personal experience I know that this book is not written from the insulated academic towers. Both Samarendra Das and Felix Padel are involved with the communities on ground connected with mining to varying degrees. I have had privilege of meeting them both during different period of time during their Goa visits.

My first interaction with Samaredra Das dates back to December 2006 over a phone call when he alerted me on directory of export data published by Goa Minerals Ore Exporters Association. When I purchased this costly document and perused it's pages I was shocked to see export heads details in it's pages which mention "including black". Mining industry was so confident of its illegal conduct of business that they were brazenly knowingly calculating it in columns! That led us to sit on day long demonstration at Azan Maidan, Panjim on 19 December 2007 and later in 2008 evolved into sustained organised efforts through founding of Goa Federation of Mines Affected People (GOAMAP) for two years.

Felix Padel visited Goa in 2009 and we had public meeting in Morpirla, Quepem. The village then was in the middle of agitation against bauxite mining proposals.

Samarendra continue to be involved with mining struggles in different countries in different continents. He and his team has been particularly focussed on exposing scams in the underbelly of Vedanta mining company. In 2010 the international efforts led to founding of "Foil Vedanta" whose consistent campaign ultimately led to its de-listing of this corporate entity from London Stock Exchange in 2018.

I appreciate the way Samaredra Das moves all over the continents including Goa to maintain his connect with those who are involved at the grassroots past quarter of the century. His operational principles of granularity and ground truthing has provided him with sustainability in honest and accountable relationship to the communities he is writing about. He is one example to cite always when it comes to how a scholar can intellectually contribute to the community defence with mind and heart.

This book is a must read for everyone working on extractive mining industry specially in India, and beyond too.

Sebastian Rodrigues 

Chennai NGT Judgement details on Honnavar Port

 

This Judgement has Total 27 pages...

Text of Supreme Court order on Honnavar Port

 

This Order was in response to legal challenge to Southern Zone, NGT Judgement dated 10 June 2025.