A RECENT report by a British development non-governmental organisation (NGO) squarely blames the western countries for causing widespread destruction of the environment due to intensive prawn farming. The huge demand for shrimps in the West has also led to loss of farmland and unemployment in developing countries. According to the London- based NGO Christian Aid, authorities in India and Bangladesh have failed to learn from the experience of farmers in south-east Asia and are encouraging intensive prawn cultivation "along almost identically unsustainable lines".

Village wells are being rendered useless and rice fields turning barren due to salt-water contamination from prawn ponds. Trees are felled and embankments needed to protect villages from flooding are breached by prawn farmers. Water pollution from prawn-farm waste results in the decline of wild fish stocks. Besides, large tracts of land are being abandoned as they become unfit for agriculture because of prawn farming and unfit for prawn farming because of prawn-disease epidemics.