| In India, aquaculture has turned a sprawling lake into fish ponds | |
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Credit: Monika Mondal / Undark |
Until the 1980s, Kolleru Lake was a sprawling shallow body of water. At its deepest point during the monsoon season, the water only reached 10 feet, yet the lake covered a surface area of 350 square miles — roughly the size of Dallas, Texas. Located in the southeast state of Andhra Pradesh, Kolleru was among India's largest freshwater lakes. Known for its biodiversity, the lake was a popular stopover for migratory birds, such as flamingos, which fed from the shallows. Humans, too, derived sustenance from the lake: not just a wide variety of fish, but also rice. Local residents would sow seeds in the summer during the monsoon season and then harvest the rice later in the year, when the lake's boundaries had receded. |
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Today, many of those rice paddies are gone, and the flamingos are beginning to disappear, too, along with a myriad of other bird species. Instead, the region is marked with houses, shops, roads, and human-made ponds. On any given day, fish farmers tend to their stocks — tossing feed into the water, extending nets, and otherwise contributing to a growing aquaculture industry centered on carp and shrimp. As this industry has expanded, it has fundamentally reshaped the region's topography. These fish ponds, once limited to the shoreline and shallows, are now being built farther and farther into the lake. As a result, scientists say, the water has been severely degraded. And not only that: What remains for most of the year cannot rightly be called a lake. |
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