Khazans of Chorão Island

Rhea Lopez

Interactive Map, Photographs, Audio, Illustrations and Text

Read Time 22 mins

Keywords

Khazan

Development

Rivers

Biota

Biodiversity

Island

Fishing

Farming

Rhea is a researcher who explores the relationship between rivers and the myriad lives they support. Through audio-visual research she recreates the impact of land-use change in Chorão’s khazans told through maps, oral histories of people, and grounded research on wildlife. Rhea documents the intertwined spatial, social and ecological implications of change in riverine spaces shared by human and non-human lives.

The island of Chorão is bound by water, nestled within the confluence of the Mandovi and Mapusa rivers, in the Tiswadi taluka of North Goa. This is the largest of Goa’s estuarine islands and is accessible via ferry from Pomburpa or Ribander. Holding the island in its watery embrace, the Mandovi River changes constantly – swelling and ebbing with the moon and tides, its salinity dropping and volume increasing manifold with the monsoon. The river holds an enormous amount of energy, tempered by the sediment it carries. As the river laps at the banks, it deposits soft, fresh silt along its edge, a timeless and unceasing endeavour which has, over time, shaped and moulded the island of Chorão.

A preliminary note on walking

Walking on the outer bundh of the island, along the river, gives one the chance to slow down, look around and listen to the landscape, allowing for a deeper and more grounded exploration of the land, water and the life they sustain. The experience leaves you with a more rooted and nuanced understanding of how this land is changing and what this means for the people, flora, fauna, livelihoods, cultures, and traditions that depend on this island landscape

Construction

Tourism & Trash

Salim Ali Bird Santuary

Living with the River

Life in the Khazan’s

A Disconnection

Audio off

CHORÃO ISLAND

The Living River

Chorão is bound by the Mandovi river - its watery depths and fluid borders in constant flux, governed by its ever-changing environment, the moon, the sun, the wind and weather. Every day, the water on its ephemeral edges floods the banks at high tide and then exposes the mudflats at low tide. With the tide, saline water from the sea makes its way into the estuaries mixing with the freshwater coming from the upper reaches. Yet, even in this challenging environment, mangroves thrive, their adaptations an example of living with the ever-changing nature of the river.

POMBURPA FERRY LANDING

On either side of the ferry landing, runs a broad outer bundh (embankment) that shields the island from the tidal force of the river.

The last ferry leaves Chorão at ten minutes past midnight, restarting again the next morning from Pomburpa at 6 am.

Passengers wait on the ferry and at the ferry point, to travel across the Mandovi river. The Ferry is free for people on foot.

THE RIVER

Blocked from the bundh by dense mangroves, an old jetty peers out over the Mandovi river. Although its use as a fishing jetty has been discontinued, the river it overlooks sees constant life.

A quiet wooden boat slithers into a narrow opening in the dense mangroves that line the salty, tidal edges of the river.

The river around Chorão experiences a diurnal tide – with one high tide and one low in a single day. During the new and full moon (locally called Umas and Purnima, respectively), the tides are at their most extreme.

A quiet wooden boat slithers into a narrow opening in the dense mangroves that line the salty, tidal edges of the river.

The monsoon is the ideal season to fish in the river using the ‘Harri’, a traditional stake net.

Locals get their boats blessed on the full moon day in the month of Shravan, offering coconuts to the wild, unpredictable river, with a request for a good fish harvest from its waters.

The monsoon is the ideal season to fish in the river using the ‘Harri’, a traditional stake net.

Locals get their boats blessed on the full moon day in the month of Shravan, offering coconuts to the wild, unpredictable river, with a request for a good fish harvest from its waters.

THE MANGROVES

Mangroves line the bundh on either side, emerging out of an entanglement of roots in the murky water. Chorão boasts a diversity of mangrove species, including Avicennia (thipli), Sonneratia (chip), Rhizophora (shengo), and Exoecaria (uro).

Mangroves have adapted to live in places with changing tidal regimes, and variations in temperature, salinity, dissolved oxygen and water. Mangrove ‘holly’ (Acanthus ilicifolius) emerges amidst the silvery bark and protruding “breathing roots” of Avicennia mangroves that allow it to grow in saline, hypoxic (low dissolved oxygen) conditions.

A stand of rhizophora sp. Mangroves, stilted roots provid ing structural security above the saline, tidal water.

The leaves of some mangroves (like this Acanthus sp.) exude excess salt from the water through their leaves.

The fruiting body of Rhizophora mangroves has an elongated buoyant body, specially adapted to be dispersed by tidal river water.

Mangroves accumulate sediment, nutrients and even contaminants from their watery environs. In these difficult environments, mangroves are important carbon sinks, storm shelters, habitats for wildlife, and breeding grounds and nurseries for a startling diversity of aquatic life.

The leaves of some mangroves (like this Acanthus sp.) exude excess salt from the water through their leaves.

The fruiting body of Rhizophora mangroves has an elongated buoyant body, specially adapted to be dispersed by tidal river water.

THE RIVER

Blocked from the bundh by dense mangroves, an old jetty peers out over the Mandovi river. Although its use as a fishing jetty has been discontinued, the river it overlooks sees constant life.

A quiet wooden boat slithers into a narrow opening in the dense mangroves that line the salty, tidal edges of the river.

The monsoon is the ideal season to fish in the river using the ‘Harri’, a traditional stake net.

Locals get their boats blessed on the full moon day in the month of Shravan, offering coconuts to the wild, unpredictable river, with a request for a good fish harvest from its waters.

The monsoon is the ideal season to fish in the river using the ‘Harri’, a traditional stake net.

Locals get their boats blessed on the full moon day in the month of Shravan, offering coconuts to the wild, unpredictable river, with a request for a good fish harvest from its waters.

POMBURPA FERRY LANDING

On either side of the ferry landing, runs a broad outer bundh (embankment) that shields the island from the tidal force of the river.

The last ferry leaves Chorão at ten minutes past midnight, restarting again the next morning from Pomburpa at 6 am.

Passengers wait on the ferry and at the ferry point, to travel across the Mandovi river. The Ferry is free for people on foot.

THE MANGROVES

Mangroves line the bundh on either side, emerging out of an entanglement of roots in the murky water. Chorão boasts a diversity of mangrove species, including Avicennia (thipli), Sonneratia (chip), Rhizophora (shengo), and Exoecaria (uro).

Mangroves have adapted to live in places with changing tidal regimes, and variations in temperature, salinity, dissolved oxygen and water. Mangrove ‘holly’ (Acanthus ilicifolius) emerges amidst the silvery bark and protruding “breathing roots” of Avicennia mangroves that allow it to grow in saline, hypoxic (low dissolved oxygen) conditions.

A stand of rhizophora sp. Mangroves, stilted roots providing structural security above the saline, tidal water.

The leaves of some mangroves (like this Acanthus sp.) exude excess salt from the water through their leaves.

The fruiting body of Rhizophora mangroves has an elongated buoyant body, specially adapted to be dispersed by tidal river water.

The leaves of some mangroves (like this Acanthus sp.) exude excess salt from the water through their leaves.

The fruiting body of Rhizophora mangroves has an elongated buoyant body, specially adapted to be dispersed by tidal river water.

Audio off

CHORÃO ISLAND

Living with the river

Living with the River

The lives of the indigenous people of Goa’s estuarine areas were shaped by their local environment – if the river flooded at high tide, the land would be submerged, rendering the earth saline and uncultivable. This vulnerability encouraged a keen observation of the shifting nature of the seasons and the moon, and the resultant movement of the water and changes in the environment. Equipped with this traditional ecological knowledge, indigenous communities reclaimed the wetlands through the structures of an early form of the khazan system. In their current form, having undergone several changes in structure, management, and ownership, the khazans are an agro-fishery system comprising of a network of embankments (called bundhs), fringing mangroves, sluice gates (manos), ponds (poiem), and agricultural fields (xett).

SLUICE GATE FISHING

Beyond the dense mangroves, the bundh is interrupted by a sluice gate, the manos, which funnels tidal river water into poiem (ponds) demarcated by narrower secondary bundhs.

The multiple doors of the manos, traditionally wooden, are hinged to the gate via a wooden or bamboo stake.

At high tide, the water level on the river-facing side of the gate rises. The resultant pressure pushes the sluice gates open and the tidal influx is collected in the pond. At low tide, the water level in the river falls and the process reverses – water from the poiem flows back into the river, taking with it prawns, and fish from the pond.

Fishers bid at village-level auctions, held annually in December, to be the manxekar or holder-of-rights to fish at the local sluice gate. The money from the auctions is intended for the maintenance of khazan structures (like the manos), considered a community resource under the management of the Communidade or local Tenants’ Associations.

Fishers bid at village-level auctions, held annually in December, to be the manxekar or holder-of-rights to fish at the local sluice gate. The money from the auctions is intended for the maintenance of the bundhs, considered a community resource under the management of the Communidade or local Tenants’ Associations.

Korli jaal are basket-like nets used to catch crabs amidst mangrove roots, using meat or fish waste as bait. Other nets, including cast nets and gill nets, have also been adapted to the comparatively still water of the ponds

Fish like Kalundera (Pearlspot), Shevto (Mullet), Sungat (Catfish), Buranto (Glassy perchlet) and Kharchani (Butterfish) are also commonly caught in the poiem. Traditional fishers follow lunar fishing calendars, anticipating higher yield during the spring tide (locally, zorgat) and allowing for replenishment during neap tides (bhangpani), when fish catch is low.

Before the reversal of pressure at low tide forces the manos open, the fishers begin the arduous task of setting up the manosxezal - a specially designed net for fishing at the manos, often modified by the fisher for the specific manos it is being deployed at.

Prawns (locally, sungta) form a major component of the catch at the manos. Smaller prawns are commonly dried on the bundh or at the sluice gate, and consumed or sold during the monsoon.

Top: The katalin, a gill net, with colourful straws as buoys
Bottom: the pagyer (a cast net).

Fish like Kalundera (Pearlspot), Shevto (Mullet), Sungat (Catfish), Buranto (Glassy perchlet) and Kharchani (Butterfish) are also commonly caught in the poiem.Traditional fishers follow lunar fishing calendars, anticipating higher yield during the spring tide (locally, zorgat) and allowing for replenishment during neap tides (bhangpani), when fish catch is low. READ MORE>

FARMING SALINE SOIL

Beyond the poiem, protected from the ingress of saline water by the bundhs, sluice gates and ponds, is the xett, or farmland.

Bhendi (ladyfinger) grown on the bundh adjoining the poiem. Other vegetables grown seasonally in Chorão’s khazans include tambde bhajji (red amaranth), mule (white radish), beans and sweet potatoes.

The land is traditionally farmed with indigenous, salt-tolerant varieties of rice, and irrigated via small channels and furrows from the poiem.

Farmers traditionally follow seasonal farming cycles, dependent on the monsoon showers for the influx of freshwater that flushes the soil of salt,

Rice is boiled in a copper vessel called the bhand to dehusk it. The fragrant grains are then dried in the sun to prepare them for sale

Farmers traditionally follow seasonal farming cycles, dependent on the monsoon showers for the influx of freshwater that flushes the soil of salt, and (right) harvesting the crop in the winter.

Rice is boiled in a copper vessel called the bhand to dehusk it. The fragrant grains are then dried in the sun to prepare them for sale

THE KHAZAN SYSTEM

Records have varied definitions of khazans, often focusing on individual components like the farm, pond, sluice gate or bundh. Traditionally, the river, the fringing mangroves and the many lives held within the system were also considered an integral part of the system, and managed as such.

The khazans are at their essence a socio-ecological system – the land and water, natural and man-made structures, human and non-human lives, and the unique interactions of each of these are integral to the structure and functioning of the system as a whole.

An inner bundh being repaired using the traditional methods and materials, including (below) clay removed when desilting the poiem.

Mismanagement of even individual khazan structures, including poor maintenance of bundhs, results in a break down of the system as a whole, as sluice gates are damaged, fields flood, and the area becomes uncultivable.

An inner bundh being repaired using the traditional methods and materials, including (right) clay removed when desilting the poiem.

People access these local commons, to relax, fish, or harvest oysters and other shellfish.

People access these local commons, to relax, fish, or (right) harvest oysters and other shellfish.

FARMING SALINE SOIL

Beyond the poiem, protected from the ingress of saline water by the bundhs, sluice gates and ponds, is the xett, or farmland.

The land is traditionally farmed with indigenous, salt-tolerant varieties of rice, and irrigated via small channels and furrows from the poiem.

Farmers traditionally follow seasonal farming cycles, dependent on the monsoon showers for the influx of freshwater that flushes the soil of salt,

Rice is boiled in a copper vessel called the bhand to dehusk it. The fragrant grains are then dried in the sun to prepare them for sale

Farmers traditionally follow seasonal farming cycles, dependent on the monsoon showers for the influx of freshwater that flushes the soil of salt, and (right) harvesting the crop in the winter.

Rice is boiled in a copper vessel called the bhand to dehusk it. The fragrant grains are then dried in the sun to prepare them for sale

SLUICE GATE FISHING

Beyond the dense mangroves, the bundh is interrupted by a sluice gate, the manos, which funnels tidal river water into poiem (ponds) demarcated by narrower secondary bundhs.

The multiple doors of the manos, traditionally wooden, are hinged to the gate via a wooden or bamboo stake.

Fishers bid at village-level auctions, held annually in December, to be the manxekar or holder-of-rights to fish at the local sluice gate. The money from the auctions is intended for the maintenance of the bundhs, considered a community resource under the management of the Communidade or local Tenants’ Associations.

Prawns (locally, sungta) form a major component of the catch at the manos. Smaller prawns are commonly dried on the bundh or at the sluice gate, and consumed or sold during the monsoon.

Top: The katalin, a gill net, with colourful straws as buoys
Bottom: the pagyer (a cast net).

Fish like Kalundera (Pearlspot), Shevto (Mullet), Sungat (Catfish), Buranto (Glassy perchlet) and Kharchani (Butterfish) are also commonly caught in the poiem.Traditional fishers follow lunar fishing calendars, anticipating higher yield during the spring tide (locally, zorgat) and allowing for replenishment during neap tides (bhangpani), when fish catch is low. READ MORE>

THE KHAZAN SYSTEM

An inner bundh being repaired using the traditional methods and materials, including (below) clay removed when desilting the poiem.

An inner bundh being repaired using the traditional methods and materials, including (right) clay removed when desilting the poiem.

People access these local commons, to relax, fish, or harvest oysters and other shellfish.

People access these local commons, to relax, fish, or (right) harvest oysters and other shellfish.

Audio off

CHORÃO ISLAND

Life in the Khazans

The khazans are a mosaic of landscapes that include the river, the bundhs, fringing mangroves, fishing ponds, and agricultural fields, and even the sluice gates. This diversity of habitats has allowed a complex assemblage of life to inhabit the system.

THE BIRDS

BIRDS IN THE KHAZANS

Khazans attract diverse avifauna to its various components, providing habitat, shelter, and food to a myriad of species.

A pair of Lesser Whistling Ducks (Dendrocygna javanica) in a rice-field.

Birds of prey, like this Brown hawk-owl (Ninox scutulata), are attracted to fields with rodents, reptiles, and small birds.

Granivores like baya weaver birds (Ploceus philippinus) feed on grain in khazan rice fields, and their colonial nests are a common sight in coconut trees.

A sandpiper wades into the water searching for crustaceans and other invertebrates in the mudflats.

Insectivores like bee-eaters are frequently seen near fields waiting to feed on insects.

The abundance of fish in the poiem, and in the mangroves, attract piscivorous birds like this common kingfisher.

A pair of Lesser Whistling Ducks (Dendrocygna javanica) in a rice-field.

Birds of prey, like this Brown hawk-owl (Ninox scutulata), are attracted to fields with rodents, reptiles, and small birds.

Granivores like baya weaver birds (Ploceus philippinus) feed on grain in khazan rice fields, and their colonial nests are a common sight in coconut trees.

A sandpiper wades into the water searching for crustaceans and other invertebrates in the mudflats.

Insectivores like bee-eaters are frequently seen near fields waiting to feed on insects.

The abundance of fish in the poiem, and in the mangroves, attract piscivorous birds like this common kingfisher.

WILDLIFE

The khazans are estimated to be between 1,500 to 3,000 years old, and were engineered keeping the natural environment in mind. Hence, the resulting system has over-time become almost naturalised – besides birds, a diversity of wildlife from mongoose and otters to crocodiles, snakes and two species of monitor lizard, are found the khazans, many having adapted their behaviours to this unique habitat.

A grey mongoose (Urva edwardsii) on a bundh

A mudskipper – an ‘amphibious’ fish with that can ‘walk’ on land – emerging from the water

The leaves of some mangroves (like this Acanthus sp.) exude excess salt from the water through their leaves.

A pair of Lesser Whistling Ducks (Dendrocygna javanica) in a rice-field.

The grass on the bundh parts where animals like otters and crocodiles access the bundh to simply cross over, bask, or mark their territory.

Smooth-coated otters use communal latrine sites, offering clues to their diet – predominantly prawn shells, and fish scales though fishers report seeing feathers, small bones and snake skin in otter spraint as well!

The distinctive variegated flutterer (Rhyothermis variegata) is a common dragonfly in the khazan wetlands.

The grass on the bundh parts where animals like otters and crocodiles access the bundh to simply cross over, bask, or mark their territory.

The distinctive variegated flutterer (Rhyothermis variegata) is a common dragonfly in the khazan wetlands.

INTERACTIONS

Sharing resources and living in close proximity with nature allows for often complex interactions, leading to unique co-adaptations and cultures.

Camera Trap images showing a (1) mongoose, (2) lapwing, and (3) a family of smooth coated otter using the bundh in a single night.

Camera Trap images showing a (1) mongoose, (2) lapwing, and (3) a family of smooth coated otters using the bundh in a single night.

A Brahminy kite (Haliastur indus) makes repeated attempts to grab the catch of fishers retrieving crab nets.

Khazan farmers in a few remaining parts of Goa conduct an annual crocodile puja called Mannge Thappni. Where practised traditionally, the puja is conducted on the bundh and involves the community collecting clay from the riverbed and moulding it into a crocodile, which is then decorated with shells, sticks, flowers, and other objects from the khazans.

This ‘conflict’ over resources with birds in the khazans takes perhaps its most creative form in the creative diversity of scarecrows around the island.