Na Jal Machhali Na Jal Rojgar

“The overall fish population has also gone down significantly, threatening the very source
of our livelihood. But because of rampant mining, that source of income has been
destroyed. the last few years have been witness to major changes in the river. In Barwaha, Barwani, Bhopal, the mahseer fish also called badas in local language is now rarely found in the river. Mahseer are large-bodied fish.

The mahseer has been declared endangered by the Madhya Pradesh Biodiversity Board,
Researcher Sriparna Saxena told Mongabay India that over five decades, between 1963
and 2015, mahseer population went down by 76%. At one point Narmada used to have
30% of the mahseer fish population. It has now drastically come down to less than 1%.
Due to the dam and opaqueness of water, Narmada is no longer conducive to the
breeding of mahseer, causing a rapid decline in its population.” several other species are
also dealing with the threat of extinction and fish species native to the Narmada such as
kamankar, ghoghara and gurmukh have also become a rare sight.

Problem:
Sand mining and the dams around the Narmada river.
” The removal of sand and gravel pollutes the river water and increases its temperature, which leads to reduced oxygen levels in the water.
more than 6,000 tonnes of sand has been illegally extracted from river Narmada around
the Barwani and Dhar districts,” and after the Sardar Sarover dam water stopped flowing and it effected the ecology of the river and it became the major reason of the badas fish been missing from the river.