From Palghar to a Pakistan prison: how warming waters are trapping fishermen

Fish hauls are in free fall as oceans warm, forcing fishermen, many of them migrant workers, to go deeper into the sea, often violating international maritime boundaries and facing arrest and detention

Abhijeet Gurjar

Faisal Rehman

Boats parked at Veraval port, Gujarat, December 21, 2024. The harbours at Veraval and Mangrol host more than 16,000 boats and register a yield of 7 million tons of fish, according to the Gujarat State Fisheries Report 2022. Abhijeet Gurjar/The Migration Story

Palghar, Maharashtra and Veraval, Gujarat; Karachi, May 10, 2025: On the bright, sunny afternoon of November 17, 2024, the Kal Bhairav (which translates as ‘Fearful’), bobbed in the deep waters of the Arabian Sea, along with 40 or so fishing vessels, which had set out from Porbandar, Gujarat. They were near the International Maritime Border (IMB), a No Fishing Zone about 5 nautical miles (8 km) from the Gujarat coastline. 

The fishermen had unwittingly wandered into the prohibited area, their haul increasingly becoming precarious by the day: warming waters were forcing them into the deep sea. 

“Within minutes, guards from the Pakistan Maritime Security Agency (PMSA) surrounded my boat and captured seven of my staff members,” said Damodar Chamudia, owner of Kal Bhairav, recounting what happened. 

The tandel (captain) made a distress call to the Indian Coast Guard (ICG); they came swiftly and rescued the crew, but were unable to salvage the boat. The vessel was damaged during the arrest and sank; a huge loss, but Damodar said he was glad that his men returned, unharmed. 

Damodar hails from Porbandar, but his workers come from other parts of Gujarat or are seasonal migrants, usually migrating to the port from August to May every year from Palghar district, Maharashtra, which is flanked by the Gujarat border on one side and India’s financial capital, Mumbai, on the other. Palghar, a largely tribal district of about 29 lakh people, has about 100,000 fishermen, according to the last census data of 2011. 

They earn around Rs 10,000 a month from boat owners in Palghar, local residents said. “Whereas in Gujarat, boat owners pay the khalasis  (workers) Rs 15,000 a month, and also disburse good advances and end-of-season incentives,” said Ganpat Laxman Bujad, a social worker from Aswali village, Palghar district.

Karsenbhai Sosa, a fisherman from Nanawada, Gujarat, got out of Malir jail, Karachi district, where both he and son, Haribhai (in photograph) were housed from 2021-23. There was no homecoming for the boy, who died on October 25, 2024. Abhijeet Gurjar/The Migration Story

The men from Palghar usually travel 20-30 km to the nearest port of Dahanu (to catch fish during the fishing season), and onwards towards Mumbai and Ratnagiri on the Arabian Sea on the same search. 

But the haul has been dwindling over the past two decades, forcing fishermen deeper into the high seas. In 2019, Maharashtra witnessed the lowest annual catch in 45 years, with a steep decline in all the fish species being caught. Climate change, evident in extreme weather patterns, long-drawn-out monsoons and the exploitative netting of juvenile fish, are the main reasons for dropping catch volumes.

Consequently, the fishermen have been migrating to Gujarat ports for better livelihood opportunities, the numbers growing since 2015. Those who move out of Palghar, an under-developed district with little or no access to basic education, end up either in industrial labour, agriculture or jobs in the fishing industry, such as processing. Or else, they get lured by lucrative, but often risk-laden, offers from boat owners in Gujarat. It is an impossible cleft stick that thousands of fisherfolk must navigate: to stay and eke out a meagre existence; or to leave -- and risk either arrest or returning after a prolonged and painful absence due to imprisonment when almost everything has changed.

An External Affairs Ministry report says that 217 Indian fishermen were in Pakistani prisons as of January 1, 2025. Recent reports from the ministry also show that 381 civilian prisoners and 81 fishermen from Pakistan are in India’s custody.

Jitesh Raghu Diva, a fisherman from Jambugaon, Palghar district, who spent four years in prison in Pakistan (2019-2023), has given up going out to sea altogether and now works in agriculture. Abhijeet Gurjar/The Migration Story

Jitesh Raghu Diva, a fisherman from Jambugaon, Talasari, in Palghar district, who had a taste of such prison experience, thinks fishermen from the region should stop moving to Gujarat seasonally, courting danger in the quest for larger hauls, and instead explore other income streams. Jitesh was imprisoned in a Pakistan jail for four years, and vowed that he would never return to the sea after his release. “I am at home, doing agriculture and spending time with my family,” he added, more or less convinced that this is the right decision despite the reduced earnings. He is irked also by the fact that “the captain and owners of the boat know of the existence of the international maritime borders; labourers like me do not know. Thus, they put the lives of workers at risk in their greed for a big catch, and we end up wasting years behind bars in Pakistan”.

PRISON

Nanawada, Gujarat, has recorded the deaths of four fishermen held in prison in Pakistan while several others await release; the picture shows Haribhai (left), and two others who died. Abhijeet Gurjar/The Migration Story

Jitesh Raghu Diva spent four years – 2019-2023 -- in  Malir jail in Malir district, Karachi, Sindh, Pakistan. His fishing tackle now adorns the wall of his home,  a grim reminder of what led to his imprisonment. Out on a fishing expedition that could land a larger catch, he was taken into custody with the rest of the crew by the PMSA on entering the India-Pakistan maritime border – located about 5 nautical miles (8 km) from Mangrol port along the coastline of Gujarat.

Jitesh’s wife was pregnant then – “I couldn’t even see my baby,” he says -- and he could only get news of his family via WhatsApp messages dictated to, and received from, the jail authorities. It was also heart-breaking for him to learn of his sister’s passing from fishermen who had newly arrived at the jail.

 Jitesh remembers his time in prison: completing the cleaning chores assigned to him and the poor quality of the food. Worse still was that he was in prison when Covid-19 cast its pall worldwide. Food was scarce. Those who went to a hospital in town often died there, he said.

Jitesh was presented four times at Karachi court. “At first, the court had said that we would be released soon, in three or four months’ time, but we were imprisoned for four years,” he said. When he returned home and his four-year-old daughter would not approach him -- a total stranger in her eyes -- he decided to stay home for good. 

Jitesh was among the luckier ones. 

Vishnu’s picture hangs on the wall of his daughter’s home. Abhijeet Gurjar/The Migration Story

Vishnu Laxman Koal, a 45-year-old fisherman from the tribal village of Aswali, Palghar district, was working for Gujarati boat owners, and was the sole breadwinner in his family. He was also picked up with the rest of the crew by the PMSA for illegal entry into Pakistani waters on the Gujarat coastline in October 2021. According to newspaper reports, he is said to have died in Malir jail on March 17, 2024. 

He is survived by his wife Sakhu and three children.

“How can a single mother make a livelihood?” Sakhu pointed out. “The government officials promised me Rs 9,000 a month, but since his imprisonment in 2021, we have received no help.” 

The boat owner declined to help Sakhu as he was already reeling under the loss of his boat. 

Retrieving boats confiscated across the border is a vexed issue. 

Velji Masani, a member of the Gujarat Fisheries Advisory Board, was part of a delegation that visited Karachi in 2008 for a dialogue. “This was the only time that the Pakistan government returned 57 confiscated boats to the Indian coast guards and fishing boat owners,” he said. 

Fishing boats usually cost about Rs 60 lakh each. India holds over 200 Pakistani boats whereas Pakistan holds 1,173 boats (as of December 31, 2024) which belong to India, according to data from India’s Ministry of External Affairs. Since 2014 until 2024, 2,639 Indian fishermen have been repatriated from Pakistan, and 478 since 2023.

 Not all infringements of border protocols by fishing vessels result in arrest and prolonged detention.. On December 4, 2024, for example, in a joint operation, the ICG and the PMSA rescued 12 fishermen on the sinking Indian cargo vessel, Al-Piranpir. 

Yet, behind these statistics lies the terrible plight of fishermen’s families, both in India and Pakistan, with the main earning member imprisoned and their means of livelihood imperilled indefinitely.

A SHARED CRISIS

Mai Bhagi, a resident of Ibrahim Hyderi village, Malir district, Karachi, whose son Rashid Hussain, and son-in-law Amjad Maheegar, are said to be lodged in an Indian prison since 1999: she got a letter to this effect from her son in 2009. Faisal Rehman/The Migration Story

Pakistani fishermen, dependent on the same warming ocean for their livelihood, are facing a similar crisis.

“The fishermen of Sindh’s coastal belt—Thatta, Badin, Sujawal—can no longer survive here because the fish have vanished from the Indus delta. Their only option is to venture into deeper waters,” said Mehran Ali Shah, Chairman of the Pakistan Fisherfolk Forum (PFF). “But when they unknowingly cross an invisible border at sea, they are captured by the Indian Coast Guard. That’s where the cycle of endless imprisonment begins.”

Rising temperatures in the Arabian Sea and increasingly unpredictable weather patterns have made traditional fishing methods unsustainable. “The frequency of cyclones has increased, marine pollution has worsened and large-scale industrial fishing has drastically impacted local fishing communities,” said Fahad Saeed, an Islamabad-based climate analyst at Climate Analytics, a global science and policy institute.

Mai Bhagi, 62, lives in Ibrahim Hyderi, a fishing village in the Malir district of Karachi, and recalls the cyclone that swept away her son and son-in-law past the international maritime border. She believes they are lodged in an Indian prison since 1999.

“I sent multiple applications to the authorities (for their release), but there was no response,” she said.

The Sindh government has launched four different projects to revive fish populations along the coast. “It will take time before we see results,” said Asim Kareem, Director of Fisheries (Marine) for Sindh.

DOUBLE WHAMMY

Indian fishermen being repatriated from Pakistani prisons receive PKR 5,000 from the Edhi Foundation towards their journey home and a temporary travel document from the Indian embassy. Abhijeet Gurjar/The Migration Story

Gujarat’s Fisheries Department, with the help of the Pradhan Mantri Matsya Sampada Yojana (PMMSY), a central government scheme, awards Rs 9,000 a month as financial assistance to the families of fishermen arrested and jailed in Pakistan until their repatriation, and Rs 4 lakhs to the family of a fisherman who dies in prison there. 

But while the Gujarat scheme does not include migrant workers such as those from Palghar, the Maharashtra scheme applies only to the boat, which is granted permission to ply, not to workers on a boat. 

The funds are small consolation for the scars suffered.

Karsenbhai Sosa, a 64-year-old resident of Nanawada, Somnath, Gujarat, was in a jail in Pakistan since 2019 for crossing the maritime border. Two years later, his son too was brought to the same prison for the same crime. “I was handed over back to the Indian authorities in 2022,” but his son, Haribhai, died on October 25, 2024 in jail.

"We don’t have any work here in Nanawada; fishing is the only option. Unfortunately, sometimes we get caught. But we are helpless and have to continue fishing for our livelihood.” 

His family was receiving the monthly compensation of Rs 9,000.  After his son died, he is eligible to receive help to the tune of Rs 4 lakhs from the Gujarat government, but this is yet to come.

Meanwhile, in Maharashtra, Jitesh says that a local legislator had promised him financial help, “but until now, I have not received anything except a few kilograms of rice.”

Nitesh Rane, Minister of Fisheries, Maharashtra, did not respond to requests for comment.

In the last decade, 26 Indian fishermen, arrested in Pakistan, died in captivity, two of the deaths taking place in Malir jail in January and March 2025 respectively: the second death was allegedly by suicide.

Edited by Nandini Bhaskaran

This story pitch exploring climate impact on fishing communities was the winner of Hostwriter Pitch Prize

Abhijeet Gurjar is an award-winning, independent visual journalist whose work has appeared in publications, including The Hindu, BehanBox, The Times (U.K.), The Christian Science Monitor, Context News and Reuters. He is the recipient of several fellowships, including ones awarded by the Population Reference Bureau (2023) and the Earth Journalism Network (2023).

Faisal Rehman is an independent environmental journalist. A former correspondent with The Environmental, he reports on climate justice, environmental degradation, migration and issues around the intersection of gender and climate-induced displacement.