Fishermen in southern India constantly grapple with the fear of being captured for crossing into Sri Lankan waters. Most of the times, crossing the limits is not their fault as they are not sure about the boundary.
Kutty Andy, a small fisherman from Nagore in Nagapattinam, Tamil Nadu says, ¡°Sometimes when the wind is strong, small fishermen get carried away into international borders. We don¡¯t know the boundaries.¡±?
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However, with the help of the fisher friendly mobile application (FFMA) developed by MS Swaminathan Research Foundation (MSSRF), the fishermen can fearlessly go to their work and return safely without being lost in the Indian Ocean.
After the 2004 tsunami, a need to develop sea safety measures emerged, and the app was designed to address these issues for fishermen. S Velvizhi, Senior Scientist, MS Swaminathan Research Foundation (MSSRF) says, ¡°The entire approach to this app is cyclic; right from the fishermen¡¯s need for weather information before entering the sea, understanding wind speed, wave height, warning against cyclones, etc.¡±?
The app has features like potential fishing zone and tuna forecast, which guides fishermen on finding fish using scientific information. The direction, latitude and longitude positions of these places are given, and the fishermen use GPS to navigate. The Ocean State Forecast gives also gives humidity information, which is useful for women in the fish drying business.?
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To prevent collision against rocks or sunk ships, there is a danger marking zone feature. An emergency SOS feature can rescue fishermen at sea. For instance, if there is a medical emergency, the fishermen can message the nearest coastguard for faster rescue.?
Similarly, there is a harbour navigation feature which assists the fishermen to find the nearest port for landing during emergency.?
The border alerts, in particular, are used by fishermen in Tamil Nadu.?
¡°In the 165 kilometre border between Dhanushkodi and Nagapattinam, every two kilometres were marked using navigation chart, and this was done with the support of coastguards. Five kilometres before reaching the border, the alarm will alert the fishermen. The alarm will repeat every 30 seconds until the border is reached,¡± says Velvizhi. ?
The fishermen requested to add vibrate option to this feature since they could not hear an alarm in the sea, and this was done.
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There are similar issues with Indian fishermen who are caught by Pakistan and Bangladesh. Velvizhi says, ¡°Work is underway to mark the coastal boundaries of both Bangladesh and Pakistan. The coast guards are working on this. We need to mark coordinates every 2 kilometres along the maritime border. Once this is done, we can use the existing architecture to implement this.¡±
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Recently, turtle nesting zone, another feature was added for fishermen in Orissa, preventing them from entering the nesting zone of Olive Ridley turtles.?
This app won the m-billionth award for agriculture and ecology (South Asia) in 2014.?
Earlier the app was not available in an offline mode. Today, fishermen can collect the information they need while they are on shore, and can access them at sea, even in absence of network.
The app is now available in 6 languages, including English, and two more languages will be soon included to the list. ¡°Once the existing work is done, this app will be available on Google Play for anyone to download.¡±