Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

Salinizing livelihoods: the political ecology of brackish water shrimp aquaculture in South India

  • Research
  • Published:
Maritime Studies Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

The growth of brackish water aquaculture globally and in India is driven by a discourse that naturalizes salinity and sees aquaculture as an alternate livelihood and a good source of food and nutrition in coastal areas. In this paper, we take issue with such a discourse and argue in particular that brackish water shrimp aquaculture is as much a cause of increased salinity as it is a response to it. We also highlight, through a case study of two villages in south India, that aquaculture farmers are relatively influential in political and economic capital and are mostly not small farmers. The paper further claims the growth of shrimp farms in the region has resulted in a declining area under productivity of paddy cultivation and pollution of fishing grounds and drinking water as well. Our findings suggest the need for policy makers to take a more critical look at brackish water aquaculture and the possible irreversible costs that they might have on coastal lands and rural livelihoods.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Subscribe and save

Springer+ Basic
$34.99 /Month
  • Get 10 units per month
  • Download Article/Chapter or eBook
  • 1 Unit = 1 Article or 1 Chapter
  • Cancel anytime
Subscribe now

Buy Now

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3

Similar content being viewed by others

Notes

  1. We use the terms aquaculture, brackish water aquaculture and brackish water shrimp aquaculture. Aquaculture includes fresh water aquaculture, brackish water aquaculture and mariculture, and brackish water shrimp aquaculture is a subset of brackish water aquaculture.

  2. Our use of the word “natural” here is to highlight policy makers’ assumption that since coastal areas are saline, it is only logical (or natural) to promote brackish water aquaculture.

  3. In India, development activities in the coastal zone are regulated by the Coastal Zone Regulation (CRZ) notification which has been amended and redrawn on a number of occasions since its first enactment in 1991. The original notification emphasized the precautionary principle with regard to allowing industrial activities in the coastal zone (upto 500 ms from the High Tide Line (HTL).

  4. The search for wild seed or brood stock can result in by-catch.

  5. The first author met scientists at CIBA on February 23, 2021.

  6. https://www.fao.org/fishery/en/statistics.

  7. https://mpeda.gov.in/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/Final%20Annual%20Report-MPEDA.pdf

  8. http://www.ciba.res.in/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/annualReport_english_2021.pdf

  9. https://mpeda.gov.in/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/Final%20Annual%20Report-MPEDA.pdf

  10. This is the last year for which official population data is available.

  11. In India and Tamil Nadu, caste is an important social category. Castes are divided into SCs, STs, backward castes (BCs), most backward castes (MBCs), and forward castes (FCs). BCs, OBCs, SCs, and STs are the socially disadvantaged castes. SCs or Dalits are the most excluded and in Tamil Nadu often inhabit separate “colonies.” STs are Adivasis or tribals. While Vanniyars are MBCs, they often own considerable amounts of agricultural land.

  12. Crops cultivated by canal irrigation water will have a minimum concentration of salt in them. Crops use up the irrigated water in the process of evapo-transpiration and leave behind salt in their roots. However, this negligible amount of salt is removed by the process of leaching wherein the salts are leached into the soil by addition of fresh water.

  13. There are 2.47 acres to a hectare. Hectare is the unit used more commonly, for example to classify farmers as marginal, small etc. However, farmers provided details in acres.

  14. By this, we mean that choices about livelihoods and meeting basic needs are influenced by the salinity of water and land.

References

  • Abdullah, Abu Nasar., Browyn Myers, Natasha Stacey, Kerstin K. Zander, and Stephen T. Garnett. 2016. The Impact of the Expansion of Shrimp Aquaculture in Livelihoods in Coastal Bangladesh. Environment Development and Sustainablility 19 (5): 2093–2114.

  • Adduci, Matilde. 2009. Neoliberal wave rocks Chilika Lake, India: Conflict over intensive aquaculture from a class perspective. Journal of Agrarian Change 9 (4): 484–511.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Adnan, Shapan. 2013. Land grabs and primitive accumulation in deltaic Bangladesh: Interactions between neoliberal globalization, state interventions, power relations and peasant resistance. The Journal of Peasant Studies 40 (1): 87–128.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ahmed, Nesar., and Marion Glaser. 2016. Coastal aquaculture, mangrove deforestation and blue carbon emissions: Is REDD+ a solution? Marine Policy 66: 58–66.

  • Ahmed, Nesar., and Shirley Thompson. 2019. The blue dimensions of aquaculture: A global synthesis. Science of the Total Environment 652: 851–861.

  • Aravindan, S., and K. Shankar. 2011. Ground water quality maps of Paravanar river sub basin, Cuddalore district, Tamil Nadu, India. Journal of Indian Society of Remote Sensing 39 (4): 565–581.

  • Armitage, Derek. 2002. Socio-Institutional dumamics and the political ecology of mangrove forest conservation in Central Sulawesi, Indonesia. Global Environmental Change 12: 203–217.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Arsel, Murat., Lorenzo Pellegrini, and Carlos F. Mena. 2019. Maria’s parodox: Oil extraction and the misery development alternatives in the Ecuadorian Amazon. In Immiserizing Growth: When Growth Fails the Poor, ed. Paul Shaffer, Ravi Kanbut, and Richard Sandbrook, 203–225. United Kingdom: Oxford University Press.

  • Bay of Bengal Program (BOBP). 1987. Pen culture of shrimp by fisherfolk: The BOBP experience in Killai, Tamil Nadu, India. Development of Small-Scale Fisheries in the Bay of Bengal, Madras. https://www.fao.org/3/ae117e/ ae117e00.pdf

  • Beutler, Julia Vita. 2017. The narrow division between livelihood security and long-term sustainability. University of Amsterdam: Unpublished Bachelor Thesis Future Planet Studies.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bhatta, Ramachandra., and Mahadev Bhat. 1998. Impact of aquaculture on the management of estuaries in India. Environmental Conservation 25 (2): 109–121.

  • Bijker, Wibie E. 2007. Dikes and dams, thick with politics. History of Science and Society 98 (1): 109–123.

    Google Scholar 

  • Central Institute of Brackish Water Aquaculture (CIBA). 2015. Vision 2050. Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR): Chennai.

    Google Scholar 

  • Chandrasekaran, H., A. Sarangi, V.P. Singh, D.U.M. Rao, P. Stalin, K. Natarajan, B. Chandrasekaran, and S. Anbazhagan. 2008. Variability of soil-water quality due to tsunami-2004 in the coastal belt of Nagapattinam district, Tamilnadu. Journal of Environment Management 89: 63–72.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Coastal Resource Centre (CRC). 2020. Below the radar: A case study of coastal aquaculture hatcheries in Chengalpattu and Villupuram Districts. Tamil: Nadu.

    Google Scholar 

  • Doupe, Robert G., Alan J. Lymbery, and Mark R. Starcevich. 2003. Rethinking the land: The development of Inland Saline Aquaculture in Western Australia. International Journal of Agricultural Sustainability 1 (1): 30–37.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Farmaki, Eleni G., Nikolais S. Thomaidis, Ioannis N. Pasias, Cecile Baulard, Leonidas Papaharisis, and Constantinos E. Efstathiou. 2014. Environmental impact of intensive aquaculture: Investigation on the accumulation of metals and nutrients in marine sediments of Greece. Science of the Total Environment 485-486: 554–562.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ferdin, M., Stefan Gorlitz, and Steffen Schworer. 2010. Water stress in the Cauvery Basin, South India – How current water management approaches and allocation conflict constrain reform. ASIEN: German Journal for Politics, Economy and Culture 117: 27–44.

    Google Scholar 

  • Folke, S. 1998. Conflicts over water and land in South Indian agriculture: A political economy perspective. Economic and Political Weekly 33 (17): 341–349.

    Google Scholar 

  • Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO). 2020. The state of world fisheries and aquaculture 2020: Sustainability in action. Rome. https://doi.org/10.4060/ca9229en.

  • Garstin, John Henry. 1853. Manual of the South Arcot District. Madras: Lawrence Asylum Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gopinath, S., K. Srinivasamoorthy, M. Vasanthavigar, K. Saravanan, R. Prakash, C.S. Suma, and D. Senthilnathan. 2016. Hydro-chemical characteristics and salinity of groundwater in parts of Nagapattinam district of Tamil Nadu and the UnionTerritory of Puducherry, India. Carbonates Evaporites 33: 1–13. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13146-016-0300-y.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gopinath, S., K. Srinivasamoorthy, K. Saravanan, R. Prakash, and D. Karunanidhi. 2019. Characterizing groundwater quality and seawater intrusion in coastal aquifers of Nagapattinam and Karaikal, South India using hydrogeochemistry and modeling techniques. Human and Ecological Risk Assessment: An International Journal 25: 314–334. https://doi.org/10.1080/10807039.2019.1578947.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Goss, Jasper. 1998. Conflict and resistance in Indian shrimp aquaculture. Economic and Political Weekly 33 (8): 383–384.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hadjimichael, Maria., Adriana Bruggeman, and Manfred A. Lange. 2014. Tragedy of the few? A political perspective of the right to the sea: The Cyprus marine aquaculture sector. Marine Policy 49: 12–19.

  • Hall, Derek. 2004. Explaining the diversity of Southeast Asian shrimp aquaculture. Journal of Agrarian Change 4 (3): 315–335.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Immanuel, Jeffrey. 2019. Admist evolving human geographies; learning to walk against the tide. Unpiblished thesis. In Centre for Technology Alternatives for Rural Areas. Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay.

    Google Scholar 

  • Immanuel, Jeffrey. 2020. Coastal shrimp aquaculture in India: Should the farmers be blamed? In Occupation of the coast II: The puzzle of shrimp cultivation on the east coast of India, ed. Siddarth Chakravary and Savita Vijayakumar, 83–109. New Delhi: The research collective – programme for social action.

  • Immanuel, Jeffrey., and N.C. Narayanan. 2022. Tragedy to the commons and outcomes of blue growth: Comparative study on the politicised environment of aquaculture. In Social Exclusion and Policies of Inclusion, eds. Smita Mishra Panda, Annapurna Devi Pandey, and Supriya Pattanayak, 135–156. Singapore: Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-9773-9_8.

  • Immanuel, Jeffrey., and N.C. Narayanan. 2022a. A Brief history of blue revolution 2.0: Key Drivers, actors, and policies in the Indian context. Economic and Political Weekly 57 (24): 46–53.

  • Islam, Mehady., and Rumana Yasmin. 2017. Impact of aquaculture and contemporary environmental issues in Bangladesh. International Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Studies 5 (4): 100–107.

  • Janakarajan, S., and K.J. Joy. 2011. Interstate water disputes among the riparian states: The case of cauvery river from Peninsular India. Pakistan: Pakistan Institute of Legislative Development and Transparency (PILDAT).

    Google Scholar 

  • Jayanthi, M., S. Thirumurthy, M. Muralidhar, and P. Ravichandran. 2018. Impact of shrimp aquaculture development on important ecosystems in India. Global Environmental Change 52: 16–21.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kathiresan, K. 2002. Why are mangroves degrading? Current Science 83 (10): 1246–1249.

    Google Scholar 

  • Koshy, E Neena. 2021. A Case for human rights-based approach to Indian aquaculture systems: A literature review. International Collective in Support of Fishworkers (ICSF) Trust.

  • Kruijssen, Froukje., and Cynthia. McDougall and Imke J M Ban Asseldonk. 2018. Gender and aquaculture value chains: A review of key issues and implications for research. Aquaculture 493: 328–337.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kume, Takashi., Chieko Umetsu, and K. Palanisami. 2009. Impact of the December 2004 tsunami on soil, groundwater and vegetation in the Nagapattinam Distrtic, India. Journal of Environment and Management 90: 3147–3157.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Loc, Ho Huu, Mindy Low Lixian, Edward Park, Tran Duc Dung, Sangam Shrestha, and Yong-Jin Yoon. 2021. How the saline water intrusion has reshaped the agricultural landscape of the Vietnamese Mekong Delta, a review. Science of the Total Environment 794: 148651.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mollinga, P. 2001. Water and politics: Levels, rational choice and south Indian canal irrigation. Future 33: 733–752.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Morshed, Manjur., Sariful Islam, Heman Das Lohano, and Priya Shyamsundar. 2020. Production externalities of shrimp aquaculture on paddy farming in coastal Bangladesh. Agricultural Water Management 238: 106213.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mukul. 1994. Aquaculture boom: Who pays? Economic and Political Weekly 29 (49): 3075–3078.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nash, Colin E. 2011. The History of aquaculture. Ames, Iowa: Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Nayak, Pradeep. 2017. Fisher communities in transition: Understanding change from a livelihood perspective in Chilika Lagoon, India. Maritime Studies 16 (13): 1–33. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40152-017-0067-3.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Naylor, Rosamond L., Rebecca J. Goldburg, Jurgenne H. Primavera, Nils Kautsky, Malcolm C.M. Beveridge, Jason Clay, Carl Folke, Jane Lubchenko, Harold Mooney, and Max Troell. 2000. Effects of aquaculture on world fish supplies. Nature 405: 1017–1024.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ohja, Atanu., and Abhisek Chakrabarty. 2018. Brackish waterBrackish water aquaculture development and its impact on agriculture land: A case study on coastal blocks of Purba Medinipur District, West Bengal, India using multi-temporal satellite data and GIS techniques. International Journal of Applied Engineering Research 13 (11): 10115–10123.

    Google Scholar 

  • Paez-Osuna, Federico. 2001. The environmental impact of shrimp aquaculture: Causes, effects and mitigating alternatives. Environmental Management 28 (1): 131–140.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Paprocki, K., and Jason Cons. 2014. Life in a shrimp zone: Aqua and other cultures of Bangaldesh’s coastal landscape. Journal of Peasant Studies 41 (6): 1109–1130.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pine, Harvey J., and Claude E. Boyd. 2011. Stream salinization by inland brackish-water aquaculture. North American Journal of Aquaculture 73: 107–113.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pompoes, Richard. 2022. A tale of two delta: Unpacking the aquaculture –salinity interface in the Kaveri and Mekong delta. Unpublished thesis. Faculty of Geosciences, Utrech University.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rahman, M.M., G. Penny, M.S. Mondal, M.H. Zaman, A. Kryston, M. Salehin, Q. Nahar, M.S. Islam, D. Bolster, J.L. Tank, and M.F. Müller. 2019. Salinization in large river deltas: Drivers, impacts and socio-hydrological feedbacks. Water Security 6: 10–24.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sajil Kumar, P.J. 2016. Deciphering the groundwater–saline water interaction in a complex coastal aquifer in South India using statistical and hydrochemical mixing models. Modeling Earth Systems and Environment 2: 1–11.

    Google Scholar 

  • Salim, S.S., R. Geetha, and N.R. Athira. 2019. Indian fish exports and dependence on P. Vannamei: Share and externalities. Journal of Indian Fisheries Association 46 (2): 19–29.

    Google Scholar 

  • Salunke, Mahesh., Amol Kalyankar, Chandraprakash D. Khedkar, Mahesh Shingare, and Gulab D. Khedkar. 2020. A review on shrimp aquaculture in India: Historical perspective, constraints, status and future implications for impacts on aquatic ecosystems and biodiversity. Reviews in Fisheries Science and Aquaculture 28(3): 283–302. https://doi.org/10.1080/23308249.2020.1723058.

  • Silas, E.G. 2003. History and development of fisheries research in India. Journal, Bombay Natural History Society 100 (2&3): 502–520.

    Google Scholar 

  • Vandergeest, Peter., Mark Flaherty, and Paul Miller. 1999. A political ecology of shrimp aquaculture in Thailand. Rural Sociology 64 (3): 573–596.

    Google Scholar 

  • Verdonk, Meik. 2018. Differences in the organization of aquaculture farming in northern Cuddalore district, Tamil Nadu, India. Bachelor dissertation, Amsterdam, University of Amsterdam.

    Google Scholar 

  • Villholth, Karen G., and Bhanu Neupane. 2011. Tsunamis as long-term hazards to coastal groundwater resources and associated water supplies. In Tsunami- A growing disaster, ed. Mohammad Mokhtari, 87–104. London: Intech Open. https://doi.org/10.5772/25125.

  • Violette, Sophie, Gilles Boulicot, and Steven M. Borelick. 2009. Tsunami-induced groundwater salinisation in Southeastern India. Comptes Rendus Geosciences 341 (4): 339–346.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank all the people in Pichavaram and T.S. Pettai who found time to discuss at length with us regarding the growth of aquaculture in the region. Thanks are also due to Ragulkanth G. and team for preparing the maps and figures. Finally, we benefited from discussions with our colleagues and friends within the FISHERCOAST team.

Funding

The research was funded by the Agence Nationale de Recherche (ANR) and the Indian Council for Social Science Research (ICSSR) via the Economic and Social Science Research Council (ESRC) and the EU-India Platform for Social Sciences and Humanities (EqUIP) Program (ES/R010404/1) in the frame of the FISHERCOAST project (Coastal Transformation in Fisher Wellbeing- Synthesized Perspective for India and Europe).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Madras Institute of Development Studies, Chennai, India

    Ajit Menon, Nithya K. & Shakila H.

  2. French Institute of Pondicherry, Pondicherry, India

    Arunkumar A. S.

Authors
  1. Ajit Menon
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Arunkumar A. S.
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Nithya K.
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Shakila H.
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Arunkumar A. S..

Ethics declarations

Conflict of interest

The authors declare no competing interests.

Additional information

Publisher’s note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Rights and permissions

Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Menon, A., A. S., A., K., N. et al. Salinizing livelihoods: the political ecology of brackish water shrimp aquaculture in South India. Maritime Studies 22, 6 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40152-023-00294-5

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40152-023-00294-5

Keywords

Search

Navigation