FISHERIES
Salem District is endowed with rich water resources. The Cauvery river caters to the water requirement of the district. The Cauvery River too flows through the district and contributes for the water requirement of the district. Apart from Cauvery there are four nonperennial rivers flows through the district namely arabanga river, Vellar river, Swetha river and Thirumanimutharu river. The districts have 3 reservoirs, many irrigation tanks and rural tanks. In Salem district, total of 412 small tanks (2002 ha) belong to Panchayat department, the fishing rights of the water resources are been auctioned out to the local public as per the Panchayat G.Os’. In some tanks the upset prices for auctioning is fixed by the fisheries department. Among these Panchayat tanks most are dependent on the monsoon for water source hence due to climatic change and monsoon failure only 40% of the tanks receive water regularly. And 102 tanks (8642 ha) belonging to PWD are mostly system tanks receiving water only during monsoon, some of these tanks are leased out to fisheries cooperative societies and most of the tanks auctioned to public. There are 19 fishermen co-operative societies functioning in the district under the control of Assistant Director of Fisheries, Mettur Dam.
