Even at the height of the hilsa season, fishers on the Padma in Shariatpur are not finding the fish they expect. Nets cast day and night come up light, incomes have fallen and the riverside fish landing points have lost their bustle. About 5,000 fishermen who go out for hilsa now face an uncertain living.

Dhaka Mail found this on Saturday, 26 September, visiting landing points along the Padma and talking to fishers. Local people say several large shoals have risen in the middle of the river over the past two years. The river's flow has changed and new channels have formed; in places silt has filled the bed and in others the current has changed course, and this has affected where hilsa move and how many are caught.

Fishers say that where a net once brought up hilsa in certain stretches, hours of casting now bring little. Rafiq Majhi and Aynal Sardar of Mawa ghat have fished the Padma for three decades. A few hours used to bring a good catch including large hilsa, they said; now a whole day on the river yields far less, and they depend on other work to support their families.

At landing points such as Sureshwar ghat in Naria and Palerchar bazar in Zajira, the crowds of fishers, buyers and sellers are gone. Wholesalers still come from other districts, but many leave empty-handed for want of hilsa. Dewan Fakir, who owns a wholesale depot at Kachikata ghat, said fewer traders come because there is less fish, and business has become uncertain.

According to the district fisheries department, Shariatpur, bounded by the Padma and the Meghna, has 71 km of river. Of this, 20 km, including 5 km in Naria upazila and 15 km in Bhedarganj upazila, has been declared a hilsa sanctuary.

District fisheries officer Biswajit Kumar Deb said the Padma in Shariatpur once teemed with hilsa, but changes in the river's depth and flow have altered that, and the navigability crisis is affecting how the fish move. Securing the river's natural flow and removing shoals and silt through planned dredging are urgent if hilsa production is to rise, he said. Others concerned fear that without it the feeding and breeding grounds of other native fish will shrink as well.

The report is by Dhaka Mail's Shariatpur correspondent, Md Al-Amin.

Source: Dhaka Mail