No. I (IQ20) ADMINISTRATION REPORT, I918-I9 27 



provide breeding and rearing ponds for suitable fish, particularly 

 Gourami and Etroplus, for the stocking of a large group of tanks 

 within a considerable radius of each of these new farms. These 

 moats at present form stagnant pools, largely overgrown with dense 

 pond vegetation, supremely suitable as harbourage to mosquito 

 larvas. As a consequence malaria is endemic within both forts, an 

 extremely serious condition seeing that a large reformatory for boys 

 is located within the Chingleput fort, while the Police Training 

 School is similarly situated within that of Vellore. When I visited 

 the latter in April, I found parts of the moat so overgrown with 

 water-lilies that the collection of their leaves for use as food 

 platters was rented out ; other portions, even where the water is 

 deep, are even more densely choked with enormous masses of 

 Water-Hyacinth, here well deserving its name of the ' lilac-devil' ; 

 mosquito larvee live here in myriads and are the main cause of the 

 malignant malaria that scourges the residents within the fort. The 

 present position is that a revised and final estimate for the Chingle- 

 put works, amounting to Rs. 11,450, is now before Government, 

 awaiting sanction, while in regard to Vellore, Government have 

 given general approval (G.O. No. 3592, Revenue, dated 4th Novem- 

 ber 1918) to the proposals submitted for a combined anti-malarial 

 and piscicultural scheme. The moat has been inspected and 

 estimates have just been received from the Executive Engineer; 

 the scheme will cost approximately Rs. 16,000. 



52. Departmental Tank Fishing. — Plans for improvements in the 

 methods employed by the local fishermen on the banks of the 

 Kanigiri-Duvvur reservoir have been perfected and have received 

 the sanction of Government [G.O. No. 1087, Revenue (Special), 

 dated 29th May 1919]. This reservoir is one of the largest irriga- 

 tion tanks in the Presidency and holds a permanent supply of 

 water. Owing to their primitive methods and implements the local 

 fishermen are unable to fish it except in abnormal years of drought. 

 The result has been that the average fishery rental brought in a 

 very small amount, out of all proportion to the intrinsic value of the 

 fish content of the tank. The scheme sanctioned provides for 

 the continuous fishing of the tank departmentally ; the local 

 professional fishermen (numbering 24), as opposed to those who 

 occasionally fish, but whose occupational calling is not fishing, will 

 be taken into the department's service, and new methods of 

 fishing will be taught to them. A sum of Rs. 8,740 is sanctioned 

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