Many in Dhaka Give Qurbani Hides to Mosques and Madrasas on Eid Day

Many families in Dhaka gave the hides of their sacrificial animals to mosques and madrasas on Eid-ul-Azha, Thursday 28 May 2026, Jagonews24 reported from Mirpur, Pallabi and Kalshi in the capital that day. Madrasa students went from house to house collecting hides once the sacrifice of cattle and goats began in the morning, but the principal of one madrasa at Mirpur 12 said far fewer hides had reached his institution by late morning than at the previous Eid.

There is a custom that the sale value of a Qurbani hide, like zakat, is given away in charity, and many families meet it by handing the hide itself to a mosque or madrasa, which sells it on. In front of mosques and madrasas, temporary bamboo-framed awnings had been put up to keep the hides brought in from homes, and some madrasas were loading the collected hides onto lorries for the tanneries at Savar, outside Dhaka.

In front of Al Jamiatul Islamia Baitus Salam Madrasa at Mirpur 12, a temporary awning had been set up for hide collection, and the madrasa's students were bringing hides in by van and rickshaw. Asked at 11:30am, the principal, Saifuzzaman, told Jagonews24 that there had been fewer sacrifices this time and fewer hides were arriving. At the last Eid, he said, 700 to 800 hides had come in by this hour, and the year before roughly the same number had arrived by 11 to 11:30am; this time only 400 had come in. "Go round the lanes and you will see there were fewer sacrifices this time," he said.

In Pallabi, madrasa students were collecting hides by van, with four hides on one van and five on another. A madrasa student, Saimum, said that at the last Eid their vans filled up every little while and a single lane yielded seven or eight hides, but this time it was a little less. "People sacrificed fewer animals, and fewer of those who used to give more than one sacrifice did so," he said.

Pallabi, one of the areas in the report, is a thana of the Dhaka metropolitan area. According to Banglapedia, it covers 25.28 square kilometres, was formed on 15 March 1995, and is bounded by Turag and Uttara thanas on the north, Mirpur Model and Shah Ali thanas on the south, and Savar upazila on the west; its main river is the Turag. The encyclopedia's entry, based on the 2001 census, counted 12 madrasas in the thana and recorded the Mirpur 12 area among its landmarks. Kalshi, the third neighbourhood in the report, is also in the Mirpur area.

According to the view of Islamic scholars cited in the Jagonews24 report, the sale value of the hides must be given to people who are eligible to receive zakat, and, where possible, to one's own poor relatives. That, the report said, brings two rewards: the reward of charity and the reward of keeping up family ties. Many also advise giving it to orphaned and poor madrasa students, which likewise brings two rewards: that of charity and that of helping religious education.

Hide income matters to many institutions. On 13 May 2026, after a meeting at the commerce ministry, the commerce minister said that thousands of Qawmi madrasas depend significantly on the income from sacrificial hides every year, Bangladesh Sangbad Sangstha (BSS) reported. He said that, in coordination with the Islamic Foundation, imams across the country would advise worshippers during Friday prayers and pre-Eid sermons on the importance of preserving hides properly.

The minister also told reporters, according to Prothom Alo, that hides would be preserved in every area by traders and by mosques and madrasas, and that each district and upazila administration would call in people from the mosques and madrasas concerned and train them to preserve hides after the sacrifice.

Before Eid, the government expected a large supply of sacrificial animals. At a press conference at the Secretariat on 3 May 2026, the fisheries and livestock minister said that 12,333,840 animals would be available for Qurbani this year, against an estimated demand of 10,106,334, Prothom Alo reported. The ministry said the surplus would be more than 2.2 million animals, so there was no fear of a shortage.

Of the animals available, 5,695,878 were cattle and buffalo, 6,632,307 were goats and sheep and 5,655 were of other species. More than 3,600 cattle markets were to be held across the country, 27 of them in Dhaka: 16 in the Dhaka North City Corporation area and 11 in Dhaka South. Twenty veterinary medical teams were to work in Dhaka's markets, animals could be sold online without any toll or market fee, and training had been arranged for professional and non-professional butchers and workers so that hides would be properly handled.

At the 13 May meeting, BSS reported, the commerce minister said that nearly one crore (10 million) sacrificial animals were expected to be slaughtered at this Eid, which made proper preservation crucial for the country's export-oriented leather sector.

The previous year's count gives the background to the collectors' impressions. According to the Department of Livestock Services (DLS), 9,136,734 animals were sacrificed at Eid-ul-Azha in 2025: 4,705,106 cattle and buffalo, 4,430,668 goats and sheep and 960 other animals such as camels and dumbas, the fisheries and livestock ministry said on 10 June 2025. The DLS count for 2024 had been 10,408,918. The 2025 figure was the lowest in four years; across 2017 to 2025, the fewest sacrifices were in 2021, at 9.093 million during the Covid-19 pandemic, and the most in 2019, at more than 10.6 million. The ministry said 3,310,603 animals went unsold in 2025.

The ministry explained that the count is made by stratified random sampling, with a sample of at least one per cent taken from three villages of different sizes in every upazila. In 2025, Rajshahi division had the most sacrifices, 2,324,971, followed by Dhaka division with 2,185,040.

Tanners also expected fewer animals this year. The chairman of the Bangladesh Tanners Association told Prothom Alo, in a report published on 26 May, that because of high inflation and the war involving Iran, his members thought comparatively fewer animals would be sacrificed, and they had therefore set a target of collecting 7.5 to 8 million hides.

On 13 May 2026 the commerce ministry fixed the prices of salted rawhides for the Eid. The price of salted cowhide in Dhaka was set at Tk 62 to Tk 67 per square foot, up from Tk 60 to Tk 65 the year before, and outside Dhaka at Tk 57 to Tk 62, up from Tk 55 to Tk 60, Prothom Alo and the Dhaka Tribune reported. Salted hides of castrated goats (khasi) were set at Tk 25 to Tk 30 per square foot and those of female goats (bakri) at Tk 22 to Tk 25, the same across the country. The minister said the prices would apply only to properly salted hides.

The 2025 rates had been set at a meeting on 25 May 2025: Tk 60 to Tk 65 per square foot for salted cowhide in Dhaka and Tk 55 to Tk 60 outside, Tk 22 to Tk 27 for khasi skins and Tk 20 to Tk 22 for bakri skins, according to The Financial Express. That year the minimum price of a piece of small cowhide was fixed at Tk 1,350 in Dhaka and Tk 1,150 outside. In 2024 the rates had been Tk 55 to Tk 60 in Dhaka and Tk 50 to Tk 55 outside, with a minimum of Tk 1,200 and Tk 1,000 a piece. In May 2025 the export of rawhide and wet blue leather was also relaxed for three months to help secure a fair price.

For 2026, the minister said a contingency plan on wet-blue exports existed but no decision had been taken, and any future step would depend on market conditions after Eid, BSS reported. The government's stated priority was to strengthen the domestic leather industry through local processing and value addition before export.

The official rates are for hides that have already been salted, while on Eid day most hides change hands raw, straight after the slaughter. Traders in Chattogram told The Business Standard in June 2025 that many seasonal buyers confuse the salted-hide price with the price of a raw hide, buy at too high a price without understanding the market and then lose money when they sell.

Salt is what keeps a raw hide from rotting before it reaches a tannery, and the madrasas that collect hides are among those the government supplies with salt free of cost. The commerce minister said on 13 May that the government would again supply salt worth Tk 17.6 crore free of cost, and BSS reported on 19 May that the purchase had already begun, citing the government's task force on the leather sector. The salt was to be delivered to madrasas, orphanages and lillah boardings across the country.

The task force gave the figures for 2025. That year Tk 20 crore was allocated for 9,330 madrasas, orphanages and lillah boardings, with a plan to buy 11,571 tonnes of salt. Going by actual demand at district level, 8,096 tonnes were finally distributed, and about 1,379,923 hides were preserved with it, BSS reported. The Business Standard reported in June 2025 that the government had first announced a plan to distribute 30,000 tonnes of free salt to madrasas and orphanages, a first for the country, before the final allocation was cut to 11,571 tonnes.

The task force estimated that 80,000 to 85,000 tonnes of salt might be needed in all to preserve the hides of 2026, against about 70,000 tonnes used the year before. It said adequate salt would be supplied at district, upazila and union level, at the cattle markets and in local shops, and that lists of salt dealers and mill owners across the country would be provided. A draft database of hide wholesalers (aratdars) and traders had also been prepared, with a plan to bring them under registration.

The cost of salt was a worry for traders. A hide wholesaler at Aturar Depot in Chattogram told Prothom Alo on 27 May that a 74-kilogram sack of salt cost about Tk 950, against Tk 700 a fortnight earlier, and that properly preserving one cowhide takes about 10 kilograms of salt.

Training was the other half of the plan. According to BSS, the government arranged training at public expense for meat workers and mosque imams on skinning and preserving hides correctly, to reduce waste and improve quality. The commerce minister said training on proper slaughtering, skinning and preservation was being held for butchers, meat traders and madrasa representatives, that local administrations would run awareness activities on the proper use of salt, and that a nationwide campaign was running on television, in newspapers, on electronic media and through leaflets.

Hide traders went into this Eid wary after heavy losses the year before. In Chattogram, Prothom Alo reported on 27 May, several seasonal traders said they would stay out of the business or buy far fewer hides. One trader said he had collected about 290 cowhides at last year's Eid, bought them at an average of Tk 700 each and had to sell them at Tk 150, losing about Tk 1.6 lakh in a day; another said he had thrown about 200 unsold hides into a city corporation rubbish truck.

The Greater Chattogram Raw Hide Aratdar Traders' Cooperative Society said it had 112 members, of whom about 40 were buying hides this year, and that a target of collecting 400,000 hides had been set for Chattogram district. Its president said 95 per cent of hide traders had lost money the year before and advised seasonal buyers to buy with care. Traders said that although the government fixes a price every year, it does not take effect in the market.

In 2025, when buyers did not turn up, giving hides to madrasas became the fallback for many households. The Business Standard reported from Chattogram on 8 June 2025 that, finding no buyers, many people who had sacrificed animals gave most of their hides to madrasas and orphanages, while some buried them. Wholesalers at Aturar Depot had bought cow and buffalo hides at Tk 300 to Tk 600, and the city had only one functioning tannery, so local traders depended on the tanneries of Dhaka.

The tanners gave their own warning. The chairman of the Bangladesh Tanners Association told Prothom Alo that tannery owners would pay the government's price if the quality of the hides was good, but that because of higher costs for salt, labour and transport, raw hides could fetch Tk 300 to Tk 400 less.

Tannery owners planned to buy about 80 per cent of Dhaka's Qurbani hides directly this year, against the 750,000 to 800,000 pieces they had bought directly in Dhaka the year before, Prothom Alo reported on 26 May. Three state-owned banks had lent Tk 160 crore for buying hides, and some private banks also lent to the sector, but many traders who applied could not get loans because their old loans were in default, so the banks could not meet their disbursement targets.

The banks explained that 65 per cent of a leather-sector loan is given as working capital that can be drawn and adjusted through the year, and 35 per cent is for buying Qurbani hides only. Among the state banks, Sonali Bank lent Tk 25 crore to a single tannery, Agrani Bank gave Tk 75 crore to two customers, and Janata Bank approved Tk 60 crore, of which Tk 52 crore was working capital. The tanners called the Eid lending inadequate.

Bangladesh Bank had issued a notification on 5 May 2026, BSS reported, allowing hide traders with rescheduled or defaulted loans to take new working-capital loans until 30 June while still in default. Banks were also told to set lending targets for the leather sector this year that could not be lower than those of 2025.

To keep the tanneries running after Eid, the task force moved to ensure uninterrupted electricity at the rated voltage to the BSCIC Leather Industrial Estate in Savar for three months after the festival. It recommended instructions to Palli Bidyut Samity-3, the Rural Electrification Board and the Power Grid Company of Bangladesh, a dedicated express feeder line to keep the central effluent treatment plant (CETP) powered at all times, emergency control rooms at the estate and the CETP, and a special load allocation from the Savar grid.

The hides that leave the madrasa awnings of Mirpur end up in this industry. According to Banglapedia, Bangladesh's leather industry developed on a large scale from the 1970s, and about 40 per cent of the country's supply of hides and skins comes from animals slaughtered during Eid-ul-Azha; daily meat consumption, weddings and other celebrations provide the rest. The encyclopedia notes that the quality of Bangladeshi raw hide is relatively good because barbed-wire fencing, which damages animal skins, is not used on farms, and that the black goatskin of Kushtia is known for its fine grain and tensile strength.

The first tannery in what is now Bangladesh was set up at Narayanganj in the 1940s by the businessman Ranada Prasad Saha and later moved to the Hazaribagh area of Dhaka; there were 30 tanneries in Dhaka in 1965, and the government acquired them after independence. Banglapedia describes how the industry came to be concentrated in Hazaribagh in old Dhaka, where it raised environmental concerns that led to plans to move it out of the city. About 95 per cent of the country's tanneries were in or around Hazaribagh before they moved to Hemayetpur in Savar.

Tannery owners told Prothom Alo that the move from Hazaribagh to the leather industrial city at Hemayetpur happened about a decade ago, and that pollution at the new site had also lowered the export value of Bangladeshi leather. With business shrinking, they said, most tanneries had fallen into default on their loans, which is why they were not getting new credit.

Leather, leather goods and footwear crossed a billion dollars in exports in 2012-13, according to Export Promotion Bureau data, and earned $1.29 billion in the 2013-14 fiscal year. Within a few decades of independence, the country progressed from exporting mostly raw hides and skins, more than 90 per cent of the trade, to exporting leather and, above all, manufacturing leather products; Banglapedia adds that the ban on exporting wet blue leather gave the domestic industry a new thrust.

Photo: Biswarup Ganguly / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 3.0). The top picture shows the Sobhanbag mosque and madrasa complex on Mirpur Road in Dhanmondi, Dhaka, in 2015, as background; it is not one of the madrasas in the report.

Sources: Jagonews24 (28 May 2026), Prothom Alo (3, 13, 26 and 27 May 2026; 10 June 2025), Bangladesh Sangbad Sangstha (13 and 19 May 2026), Dhaka Tribune (13 May 2026), The Financial Express (26 May 2025), The Business Standard (8 June 2025), Banglapedia (Leather Industry; Pallabi Thana), Wikipedia (Leather industry in Bangladesh; Hazaribagh Thana).