Fishermen of Nochikuppam protest against removal of stalls on Loop Road | Photo Credit: Jyoti Ramalingam B
Fisherman K Bharti, president of the South Indian Fishermen’s Welfare Association, has had sleepless nights over the Nochikuppam fish market for more than 20 years. “It has always been in the public eye, and we have been constantly fighting for the right to our land,” says the 55-year-old. Nochikuppam, Bharathi says, finds mention in British records along with the nearby Dooming Kuppam, and Mulli Kuppam, and the Nochikuppam Co-operative Society under the Department of Fisheries was formed as early as 1945.
“In my younger years, the boys in the neighborhood used to go swimming in the sea dough, a little piece of wood from a catamaran,” he recalls, adding that he used to pass by women selling fish, though there were fewer of them than today. “The market has grown only after 1980,” he says.
And ever since, it’s been in the eye of the storm. “We are constantly being asked to vacate because some people think we are in the public eye. But such is our job, people might not find it pretty,” says Bharti. Earlier this month, After a High Court order removed some stalls by the Greater Chennai Corporation, fishermen protested, blocked the road with fiberboats and brought the fish market back into the limelight. After two weeks of back and forth, The corporation has allowed the market to continue till a permanent market, currently under construction, is opened.
“What happens once we shift? Perhaps a footpath will be made in place of the market and benches will be installed for pedestrians. But still, we have to choose the fish in our nets from there. Will we be asked to remove them too, because people find them stinky?
Imagine a loop road without this market: a ‘clean’ road with a beautiful view as we drive down it; golden sand in which no cobwebs lie; There’s no Sunday morning drama as the fishermen heave their nets with their fresh catch, hauling them out one by one, as if a crowd is watching a stage performance.
These men and women have become like family to many of us in the city who shop with them every week. You can see it in the way cheers are exchanged, and inquiries are made about each other’s children Mati And vanjiram being weighed and packed. As a result, there is always noise in the market. The stalls are dilapidated, some of them with only a handful of wooden bins on which fishes have been arranged. And fish, of course, has its own specific smell.
All these combined attack the senses, which is the soul of our city.
Read about the people of Nochikuppam beach talesA compilation of columns published recently by The Hindu in Metroplus.