During the fish breeding season, all passes and permits for entering the Sundarbans are suspended, and the government bans fishing in the forest's rivers for three months. Yet fishing is going on freely with no regard for the ban.

In the past two months, 101 people have been detained on charges of catching fish and crabs in the Sundarbans' canals and rivers during the ban. In the same period eight engine-driven trawlers, 130 boats and a pickup van carrying crabs were seized.

Iqbal Hossain Chowdhury, range officer of the Sundarbans' Satkhira range and assistant conservator of forests, confirmed this information to Jago News.

He said that as all passes and permits for the whole Sundarbans are suspended for three months from 1 June to 31 August, no tourist, fisher or vessel may enter. Even so, in the past two months (June and July) seven POR cases were filed in the Satkhira range, in which 22 people were detained and sent to jail. In addition, 31 UDOR cases and 16 COR cases (with 79 accused) were filed. Fines of Tk 23 lakh 36 thousand were collected through departmental settlement of cases.

He said regular patrols have been stepped up in every sanctuary area, and SMART team operations are under way. "Whenever I get word from any area, I carry out drives myself," he said. Regular passes to enter the Sundarbans will be issued from 1 September, when tourists and forest-dependent people can enter again, but entry to sanctuary areas will remain banned at all times.

According to the forest department, most of the areas under the Dobeki, Pushpakati, Notabeki, Mandarbaria and Haldebunia forest patrol posts of the Satkhira range in the western Sundarbans have been declared sanctuaries. Entry by forest-dependent people into the canals of sanctuary areas is completely banned to protect biodiversity and fish breeding.

Local people allege that these offences go on in the sanctuary areas through some dishonest forest officials and a few local brokers. Poison fishing in the sanctuaries is destroying the Sundarbans' fish breeding grounds and threatening the biodiversity of the whole forest.

Forest department officials deny the allegations, saying surveillance of the protected areas has been increased. Besides local forest camps, SMART teams have been formed to patrol, and several fishers have already been detained for fishing.

Several fishers recently detained by the forest department, who asked not to be named, told Jago News that a lot of fish can be caught quickly in the sanctuary canals, and even more with poison. So they pay the officials in charge of patrol posts and SMART teams through a few influential local traders and brokers and fish in the sanctuaries. But if a broker is late paying or does not pay, a drive is carried out and they are detained. As long as the officials get the money, there is no problem, they said. They also admitted to fishing with poison.

Gazi Salauddin Bappi, convener of the Satkhira Sundarbans Protection Committee, told Jago News that even during the ban many dishonest fishers from the coast enter the sanctuary areas every day to catch fish and crabs, and a large share of them use poison in the canals. Poachers go into the forest with them and hunt deer and tigers. Broker syndicates have grown up area by area to control them; it is mainly these brokers who take money and arrange their way into the forest.

He said it is because not all forest officials are dishonest that these people are regularly detained, their goods seized and cases filed. Still, the activity has not stopped, mainly because of the broker rings on the coast. Unless action is taken against them, it will not stop, he said.

Dr Abu Naser Mohsin Hossain, divisional forest officer (DFO) of the Sundarbans West Forest Division, told Jago News that during the entry ban, members of the various stations and patrol posts are patrolling continuously. Many people have already been detained for involvement in forest crimes and brought to justice through legal process.

He said 1,19,718 hectares under the Khulna and Satkhira ranges of the Sundarbans are designated as sanctuary. The fish breeding season in the Sundarbans' rivers runs from 1 June to 31 August every year, and on the instructions of the forest ministry all passes and permits have been suspended for these three months.

Reported by Ahsanur Rahman Rajib.

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