A joint force in Satkhira has seized and destroyed 3,360 kg of mangoes that were being marketed while immature.

The mangoes were seized in the Shuilpur area of Bharashimla union in the district's Kaliganj upazila on Thursday afternoon (23 April).

The Kaliganj upazila administration said the drive was carried out on a tip-off that immature mangoes were being ripened with a hormone called ethylene and sent to Dhaka. A Dhaka-bound pickup was searched and 3,360 kg of mangoes in 168 crates were seized. On the orders of a mobile court, the mangoes were then crushed with a roller on the embankment road next to the Shuilpur Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) camp.

Kaliganj assistant commissioner (land) Mainul Islam Khan said pickup driver Shahin Hossain was fined Tk 1,000 for carrying mangoes mixed with harmful chemicals. He was released on a bond not to take part in such activity again.

However, nothing was said clearly about exactly what chemical the seized mangoes contained, at what level, or whether they had been tested in a laboratory, and this has raised questions among local people.

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