Fish worth about Tk 4 lakh have been killed after harmful pesticide was put into Larkibari beel in Singra upazila of Natore, farmers allege. Local people noticed dead fish floating on the wetland on Monday morning (2 November). The farmers say a long dispute between two local groups over control of the beel lies behind it.
Villagers say residents have farmed fish together in the Kotuabari and Larkibari beels for 40 years. Recently about 50 people from Kotuabari and Parsail villages, among them Asaduzzaman Babu, Abdul Kaiyum and Biplobur Rahman Sabuj, jointly released rui and other carp worth about Tk 30 lakh into the beel.
The farmers say villagers had been in dispute over the beel with a former union council member, Ashraful Islam, and a local leader, Rana Ahmed, and that efforts by local leaders to settle it had failed. "We have farmed fish in this beel together for four decades," Asaduzzaman Babu and Abdul Kaiyum said. Another farmer, Biplobur Rahman Sabuj, said it is not known who poisoned the water at night, but about Tk 4 lakh worth of their fish died. Samakal said it could not reach Ashraful Islam by mobile phone for comment.
The damage goes beyond the stocked fish. Senior upazila fisheries officer Shahadat Hossain said the poison had destroyed not only farmed fish but also many native fish species and other aquatic life in the beel, which will seriously harm the breeding of native fish. He said the matter would be looked into and action taken.
Rafiqul Islam, officer in charge of Singra police station, said he had heard the beel was poisoned and that legal action would follow if a written complaint was filed.
The story was reported by Samakal's Singra (Natore) correspondent.
Photo: Sm faysal / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Source: Samakal
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