IAPRS & SIS, Vol.34, Part 7, “Resource and Environmental Monitoring”
, Hyderabad, India, 2002
farming has become very common in recent years because of
its high commercial value. Giant tiger prawn (Penaeus
monodon) is the dominant species in commercial production,
although Indian white prawn (Penaeus indicus; around 5% of
total production) is also farmed in several places. There are
10363 registered fisheries societies in India, with a
membership of 1 122000 people. However, brackish water
aquaculture becomes threat to mangrove forests and salt
marshes, because they have been cleared for use as ponds.
They are habitat for various animal species. Objectives for
future fisheries development include enhancing fish production,
generating employment, improving socio-economic conditions
of fishers, promoting exports and providing food security by
way of increasing per capita availability of fish to about
11kg/yr. These objectives will be achieved through an
integrated approach to marine and inland fisheries and
aquaculture, taking into account the need for responsible and
sustainable fisheries. India's marine fisheries production has
reached a plateau and, at best, only marginal increase is
predicted in the near future. Most major stocks are fully
exploited and further increase has to come from exploitation of
deep-sea resources. However, inland production has shown
rapid growth, recording an annual growth rate of 6%.
Aquaculture is the principal factor in this development. All
future additional demand for fish will have to be met from
aquaculture. A number of schemes have been instituted by state
and central sectors to increase brackish-water aquaculture and
fish production from tanks and ponds, lakes, reservoirs and
rivers. The private sector has emerged as a major player in
brackish-water aquaculture, particularly in shrimp farming.
The state of Andhra Pradesh produces nearly 14.2 per cent of
the total inland fish production of India from 96,000 hectares.
Nearly 80 per cent of the total fish production of Andhra
Pradesh state comes from only two districts, viz; Krishna and
West Godavari of the 23 districts. As per the Andhra Pradesh
state records 35,000 hectares is under fishpond cultivation in
Krishna district. The present annual per capita consumption of
fish is 8 kilos per person in India, while the global average is 12
kilos. Today, India is pushing ahead with a Blue Revolution,
in rapid increase of its fish production in small ponds and
water bodies. One of the villages called ‘Potumarru’ in
Kalidindi mandal of Krishna district, Andhra Pradesh, India,
figured in national headlines through its Blue Revolution in the
recent past. This is a boon to small farmers, the nation's
nutrition and its gross domestic product. The three mandals,
viz; Kaikalur, Kalidindi, and Mandavalli in Krishna district of
Andhra Pradesh state, India, where pond aquaculture is found
to be maximum, have been selected for the present study.
2. STUDY AREA:
In the present study, an attempt has been made to estimate the
area under fishpond culture and their change from 1989 to 1999
in the three mandals namely Kaikalur, Kalidindi, and
Mandavalli in Krishna district of Andhra Pradesh state, India,
using high-resolution data from satellites. The total area
covered under the present study is 518.6 sq. km. According to
1991 census, 1,81,958 people reside in 67 villages and one
urban area, situated in the three mandals. The total population
comprises of 92,070 male and 89,888 female. Among the three
mandals, Kalidindi has recorded the highest number of males
(34,258) and females (33,626) forming 2.86 per cent of the
district rural population (23,73,879). There are 976 female for
every thousand male in the study area. Nearly 5 per cent of the
456
total population covered by Scheduled caste and Scheduled
Tribe (poorest people in the society). The population density
in the study area is 350 persons per square kilometer. The
literacy inthis area is 44.85 per cent. A person of the age above
7 years is considered literate, if he is able to read and write
with understanding in any one of the Indian languages. Forty
five per cent of the total population in the area is main workers
and very few are marginal workers. The main workers are
those who have worked for a major part of the year preceding
the enumeration. In the study area there are 27.79 per cent of
the total population covered under agricultural labourers of
which most the people are traditional fishermen community
called ‘vaddees’. Most of the villages in these three mandals
can be approached through pucca roads, some of them are
connected by kachcha roads and are provided with facilities
like education, drinking water through wells and tanks, power
and communications. Prior to 1980s, agriculture was practiced
in more than 55% area of the total study area of which most of
the area was cultivated through canal irrigation. With the
advent of aqua boom, the agricultural lands have been started
converting into pond aquaculture in early 1980s. During the
course of the time, part of the Kolleru Lake (one of the largest
fresh water lake) situated in Kaikalur and Mandavalli mandals
were also under went the conversion process. A detail study
has been undertaken to estimate the decadal change in Kolleru
Lake area using high-resolution data from satellites and
presented the results (Rao et al; 2000).
3. METHODOLOGY, DATA AND ANALYSIS:
The study area (Figure 1) covering the three mandals namely
Kaikalur, Kalidindi, and Mandavalli in old Kaikalur revenue
tehsil of Krishna district, Andhra Pradesh, India. The revenue
tehsils were later restructured in to revenue mandals during
1985. The revenue tehsil (administrative) maps on 1:63,360 or
1 inch = 1 mile scale were obtained from Central Survey Office
of Andhra Pradesh. The administrative maps containing
village boundaries, transport network, canals, etc., surveyed
during 1929 and updated during August 1953 were digitally
scanned. The digitally scanned maps are projected with the
standard referencing scheme. The projection considered here is
the polyconic and the spheroid taken is Everest with the same
Everest datum. The geometric rectification of these maps was
done using standard procedure available in image analysis
package.
ndhra Pradesh
6 y i
she) jJ
Al in
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Figure 1. Study Area
The multi date digital data of Landsat 5 — TM of November 23,
1989 and December 07, 1994 of 142 path and row 051, IRS 1B
- LISS II of December 23, 1992 of path 23 and row 57, IRS 1C
- PAN & LISS III of May 10, 1996 of path 103 row 61 and IRS
ID - LISS III of March 12, 1999 of path 103 row 61 was
selected for the present study covering the study area. Brief
descriptions of the satellite sensors are provided in Table 1.
