It was almost a year ago that Priyesh Maliyekkal, a 32-year-old fisherman from the coastal village of Azhiyur in Kozhikode district, got a class assignment from his teacher at the 10th grade equivalency class to write about an environmental issue. It was then that Priyesh, who started his fishing career when he was 13 years old, thought about the amount of plastic he caught in his net while fishing.
For the last few years he had been noticing that the amount of plastic he caught was increasing day by day. Like any other fisherman, he threw back the waste into the sea after segregating it from the fish. Though he had a vague idea of this being a larger environmental issue, he did not know what had to be done.
The young fisherman was quite popular in Azhiyur and the neighbouring villages as he was usually called in to rescue people who accidentally fell into the sea or river. He actively participated in rescue missions post Ockhi Cyclone in 2017 and the massive floods in 2018.
Turning point
Priyesh was one among the many fishermen honoured by the Kerala government for participating in rescue operations. That was the turning point in his life.
“I met many senior officials during the functions held to honour us at the panchayat, district and state level. I shared my thoughts with them. It was then that I got insights into the bigger environmental concerns about marine pollution,” Priyesh tells TNM.
Priyesh had observed that fish availability was almost nil in areas where plastic waste was found.
“Earlier, in one catch there would be a lot of fish and some waste. Gradually, I noticed that my net was filled with 80% waste and very few fish,” Priyesh says.
“We fishermen call the sea ‘Kadalamma’ (Mother Sea), so how could we consider our mother a dustbin. This thought disturbed me a lot. I also thought about a future where the sea would be fully polluted and there were no fish. What will happen to us then?” he adds.
Priyesh Maliyekkal
A personal mission
Priyesh decided to help in whatever way possible. He spoke to people at the health department and the local self-government. They agreed to collect dried plastic waste from him. Then he stopped throwing the waste back into the sea. He collected it in his motorised fibre boat along with the fish he caught.
“I collected the waste, segregated it, washed and dried it in the sun and later handed it over to the Haritha Sena (green mission team) of Azhiyur Panchayat,” Priyesh explains, adding that he began his mission in November 2018.
“In the beginning I spent an extra hour or two for plastic collection. Later I started sparing one or two days in a week for this,” he says.
In just 8 months Priyesh had collected almost 13 tonnes of waste. He had to stop after the state announced the annual trawling ban in July. He was planning to restart his mission after the ban ends, but because of debts and objections from his family he says he might not be able to spare time to collect plastic at the cost of neglecting his work.
Financial challenges
“Since I was spending many days for plastic collection, I was not able to earn as much as I did earlier. I had to pledge my wife’s wedding chain to repay some amount of the loan I had taken to get a motorised boat. Financially we are struggling, so I might not be able to collect plastic waste by avoiding my work,” he says, pain evident in his voice.
But Priyesh says that he will collect any plastic that gets stuck in his net while fishing or that he might spare one or two hours a day to clean up his dear sea.
“My family is happy that I go for rescue operations, but they are concerned when I spend hours and days in cleaning waste. But I know what I’m doing is right and that it has to be done,” he says.
Priyesh observes that the quantity of waste has reduced considerably in the 5.5 km stretch of coastline that he cleans every day. “Earlier the net was full of plastic items, now I get one or two in one catch,” he says, adding that fishermen in the state can easily clean the entire 500 km stretch of Kerala’s coastline within a few months.
Some of his fellow fishermen and villagers call him a fool, but Priyesh is well aware of the importance of the service he is doing.
“If I can do this alone, imagine if everyone decides to help… we can do wonders. I am not sure about moving forward with this mission alone, but if there is support from the community we can save our Kadalamma,” he says.
Priyesh was awarded by his panchayat in June 2019 for his lone mission to clean up the sea.