CXX1V 



The following are the modes of fishing- recorded : — ' Pilni/ or smallest net 

 of all, chiefly employed for taking prawns ; it is a hand (lave) net fast- 

 ened to a triangular bamboo frame. ' Pandi/ the smallest casting net, 

 this is ordinarily about 15 feet long, weighted with iron ; when it is 

 desired to net a considerable breadth of stream, several of these nets are 

 used, fastened together, making one very long net, in this almost every 

 kind of fish is caught; the substance of which it is composed is three or 

 four threads of cotton which forms a very fine cord ; it is a heavy net, re- 

 quiring three or four men to drag it. The ' Mahajal/ or great fishing net, 

 is resorted to in large streams, &c, generally used out of boats : two are 

 taken from different directions towards one central point, the fish being 

 driven by beating the water and noises of all sorts, to the point where they 

 are caught, between the two Mahajals. The ' Kamni ' or ' Kawria' is a net 

 fixed opposite the opening in a bund or dam, into which all the fish are 

 swept by the stream : in some localities the dam is of stone, and a net stops 

 the openings ; in other places the dam is a bamboo screen, and the orifices 

 are lined with tatties, leading the fish into a bamboo-grating enclosure 

 (cruive) which allows the water to pass, but retains the fish. In the 

 ' Kurar ' fishing, a funnel or cone-shaped bamboo net is put down, 

 extinguisher fashion, from a boat passiug over a shoal of fish. ' Ulechna' 

 means ' to bale out/ in this mode of fishing a channel of the river is 

 dammed up with stones, which permits the water to flow through, but 

 detains the fish ; as the water gets low, the fish are baled out in flat 

 bamboo baskets. ' Pahao ' is a trap made of wood and bamboo cuttings, 

 it is placed in narrow and shallow streams, the water flows through 

 it, but the egress of the smallest fish is prevented. f Dauni ' is a baited 

 night or day line. ' Kankur ' is fish spearing. Most of the other plans 

 have been already referred to in the last paragraph. 



264. In the Nerbada Division, the five Tehsildars reply as follows : 



there are 5,659 fishermen, all of whom have 

 of N e ative a offickli° n ' ° piai ° ns other occupations ; in one tehsil it is remarked 



that " many have ceased to follow their ori- 

 ginal occupation, owing to the demand for well-paid labor developed by 

 the railway/'' They are mostly Dhimars, a term applicable to boatmen 

 and sellers of parched gram ; Kahar, Bhoee, applicable to palki-bearers, 

 Singhrora or sellers of the Singhara nuts, and Mussulmen. The local 

 markets are stated to be sufficiently supplied in one district, but insuffi- 

 ciently so in the remaining four. In two districts about 50 per cent, of 

 the people eat fish, in one from 50 to 75 per cent., in one 75 per cent., and 

 in the remainder upwards of 85 per cent. In two districts, the amount 

 of fish in the waters has continued to be stationary of late years, 

 whilst it has decreased in the remaining three. In all the tehsils, a great 

 destruction of fry is recorded as occurring during the rains. The Teh- 

 sildar of Narsingpur observes, " it is to this wholesale destruction of the 

 small fish, that the fish have decreased." The minimum mesh of the nets 

 in use is given in all five districts at one-eighth of an inch ; in four of the 

 districts fish, large and small, are trapped in the irrigated fields. The modes 

 of fishing are similar to those described in the two last paragraphs, in addi- 

 tion to which the poisoning of the water is reported in Chhindwara, 

 Hoshangabad, and Minar : also a lighted torch is taken in a canoe 

 over deep water ; the fish collect near the light and are netted. 



