The government has imposed a 22-day ban to protect mother hilsa during the breeding season. For the Department of Fisheries, the most important area at this time is the sixth hilsa sanctuary, on the Meghna in Hizla and Mehendiganj upazilas of Barishal. A 22-km stretch of the river is treated as a hilsa sanctuary, known as the "hotspot of hilsa breeding".

Local sources say fishermen are catching hilsa freely day and night on this 22-km stretch in defiance of the ban, and selling it openly at nearby markets. Attacks on law enforcers and officials who try to stop them have become almost routine.

According to the fisheries department, Tuesday was the 11th day of the ban. In those 11 days officials and law enforcers came under attack twice on the Meghna in Hizla upazila. Most recently, on Friday night, Md Emdadullah, director of the hilsa resource development and management project, and other senior officials were attacked during a drive at Orakul, next to Gourabdi union. When they returned to the same place with RAB on Saturday afternoon, they were attacked again, and the speedboat carrying fisheries officials was vandalised. Law enforcers fired 11 blank rounds to bring the situation under control. A case was later filed at Hizla police station.

Mehendiganj upazila fisheries officer Imran Hossain said that, as every year, fishermen are obstructing the drives. Attacks are most frequent on the Kalabadar river in the Darichar-Khajuria area.

Mehendiganj UNO Nesar Uddin said the administration has neither vessels nor staff to guard the vast Meghna. There are allegations that the boatman of the trawler hired for drives is himself a source for the fishermen.

Nripendra Nath Biswas, Barishal divisional deputy director of the Department of Fisheries, said a large gang is catching hilsa illegally. The navy, coast guard and river police are working jointly to stop it, but the fishermen remain active. As in the past few years, fishermen have attacked drives again this year. "It is worrying, but the drives are continuing," he said. The authorities are considering seeking the army's help to counter the gang.

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