Meeting with Small Scale Fisher Community at Pravara River and Godavari River, in Shrirampur Taluka, Ahmednagar district, Mahrashtra, India.

Human wellbeing is possible only by better health of wetlands, conservation of their biodiversity and sustainable livelihood use, consumption and management. The Godavari river and Pravara river are two major rivers running through Shrirampur Taluka of Ahmednagar district, Maharashtra, India. These rivers are lifeline to hundreds of villages for irrigation, drinking water and fisheries dependent livelihood. There are dozens of villages situated along these two rivers where small scale fisher communities live. They catch fish from these rivers and sell in the local market or supply to bulk traders. These fisher families are not surveyed and there is no record of them with the fisheries department of Maharashtra. These small scale fishers are deprived of the benefits given to small scale fishers under the constitutional provisions as well as under the union and state schemes. The meeting with these small scale fisher families was organised to identify the critical issues they are facing as well as through discussions find ways and means to deal with the issues.