A mobile court run to protect brood hilsa seized 5,000 metres of illegal net and some jatka (young hilsa) on the Kacha river in Indurkani, Pirojpur, during the fishing ban. Several fishermen managed to flee during the drive at around noon on Monday, 6 October.

At around 2pm the same day the seized nets were burnt on the upazila premises in the presence of upazila nirbahi officer (UNO) Hasan Bin Mohammad Ali, and the fish were distributed among some extremely poor people.

The drive was led by upazila fisheries officer Fahad Rahman. Indurkani police station officer-in-charge (OC) Md Maruf Hossain and others concerned were present.

Fisheries officer Fahad Rahman said: "Acting on a tip-off, we seized 5,000 metres of illegal current net, 7-8 ilisha nets and some fish while fishing was going on at Alir Khal on the Kacha river. The nets have been burnt and the fish distributed among the extremely poor. Our drives to protect brood hilsa will continue."

The government has fully banned catching, transporting, storing, marketing, buying, selling and exchanging hilsa for 22 days, from 4 to 25 October, during the main hilsa season. The administration is running such drives firmly in line with the ban.

Source: Jagonews24. First published in Bengali on The Agro News.