With six days left of the government's 22-day ban to protect brood hilsa, fishers who are keeping it say hilsa are being caught openly on rivers in Jhalokathi. They blame the lack of regular, effective patrols, which they say seasonal fishers are taking advantage of.
Catching, transporting, storing and selling hilsa is banned nationwide from 8 to 29 October. The district fisheries office says that in the first 15 days of the ban 226 teams ran drives on the Sugandha, Bishkhali, Halta and other rivers. Thirty-nine mobile courts filed six cases, and three fishers were detained and jailed for various terms. The drives seized 84 kg of hilsa and about 53,910 metres of current net worth an estimated Tk 1,005,100, which was burned.
Fishers who are observing the ban are not satisfied. They say many fishers go out every day while arrests and seizures are few, and that news of the drives leaks in advance, so many are ashore before the teams arrive. Some members of a fishers' association say upazila administration drives are more effective than those of the fisheries department, whose boats often stay at the jetty, and that not one boat or trawler has been seized or destroyed so far.
Biplob Maloy, Hakim and Rustam, who fish the Sugandha, said fisheries officials make short rounds and leave, sometimes heading the other way even when shown where fishing is going on. They are sitting at home under the ban while others take the fish. Md Hanif Howlader, Md Sumon, Kader and Sirajul of the Bishkhali said the 25 kg of rice given to each fisher cannot feed a family for 22 days, so many are forced onto the river.
The district fisheries office says Jhalokathi has about 248 km of river, with most hilsa on the Sugandha, Bishkhali and Halta, where surveillance has been stepped up. District fisheries officer Md Enamul Hossain called the allegations of irregularity and collusion false. His staff are on the river every day doing their utmost, he said, but a shortage of personnel means they cannot keep many teams out at once.
Rajapur upazila nirbahi officer and executive magistrate Rifat Ara Mouri said no one breaking the ban will be spared, and two people have already been detained and jailed. Fishers want regular patrols, strict action, support for genuine fishers and publication of the boats and nets seized.
The report is by Barta24's Jhalokathi correspondent.
Photo: Mamun2a / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 2.5); hilsa fish.
Source: Barta24
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