The Hindu

• Effort to shift the fish drying yard to another location not successful 
• Hotels, bakeries and juice joints are losing business
• Waste fish stock is posing a serious health hazard 
  

Mangalore, Oct 14: The city is known for pest and mosquito menace. Several varieties of mosquitoes such as Culex, Anopheles, Aedis Aegypti and houseflies invade Mangalore during the festive season.

A small group of fishermen has started stocking fish for making fishmeal on the Bengre beach, which is across the Old Mangalore Port. But the stock has putrefied owing to intermittent rain, which in turn breed flies.

The Mangalore City Corporation has made an effort to shift the fish drying yard, but reported political pressure and lobbying against the shifting has made the council and its officials helpless. The impact of the problem has affected the economy as none of the hotels, eateries, bakeries and juice joints does even half the business.

The waste fish stock is posing a serious health hazard, and there are fears that infectious diseases may spread from the nearby Bunder area. It is the central trading area of Mangalore with stocks of all food supplies including sugar and jaggery.

Report submitted

The entomological report submitted to the Mangalore City Corporation Council stated that if the fly breeding in a particular season was unchecked there might be a time when the breeding could be permanent.