The fishing festival has begun at Burir Bandh on the Shuk River, which runs through Akcha and Chilarang unions of Thakurgaon Sadar. The barrage's five gates were opened on Friday night, and once the water fell, thousands of men, women, children and old people from the nearby villages and across the district went in from dawn on Saturday (24 October).
Some fished with nets, polo traps, spears and lafi nets; those with no gear waded into the mud and caught fish by hand. Many also brought fika, lafi, current, ring and chatka nets. Local resident Mozammel Haque caught about two kilograms of fish, punti and tengra among them, between dawn and 9am.
But the catch is smaller than in other years. Mitul Hasan from the district town, who comes every year, said the day turns into a fair, but ring nets set by traders leave ordinary fishers with less. Fishers said the sluice stays open for a few days and the first day draws the biggest crowd, and that over the past two or three years ring and current nets have sharply reduced native fish.
According to the Water Development Board, the sluice was built on the Shuk around 1951-52 to irrigate farmland in the dry season and later came to be known as Burir Bandh. In the monsoon water is held back for farming the higher land, and the district fisheries office releases fingerlings of various species into it, which the Akcha and Chilarang union councils look after.
Atiqur Rahman, the board's executive engineer in Thakurgaon, said there is a fish sanctuary in front of the barrage. When the water is released at the start of winter the area is opened for fishing, which is how the festival has been held every year.
The report was filed by Desh Rupantor's Thakurgaon correspondent.
Photo: A fishing festival after the water recedes in Bangladesh, Mahinur11 / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0); representative image
Source: Desh Rupantor
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