The Kadamtali fish sanctuary on the Tangon River in Pirganj, Thakurgaon, has silted up and is running short of both water and food, threatening thousands of native brood fish sheltering there.
The fisheries department set up the sanctuary in 2001 at a bend of the Tangon in Banuapara, Daulatpur union, as a safe breeding and conservation site for native species. In the breeding season the brood fish release eggs into the river and return, restocking canals and wetlands across the upazila.
Fazlul Karim, the sanctuary's president, said it holds several thousand brood boal, air, chital, rui and catla weighing 30 to 50 kg. With the water level down, the fish are surfacing and cannot move normally, and with little natural food their heads have grown out of proportion to their bodies, he said.
Ayesha Akter, senior upazila fisheries officer in Pirganj, said that because the river has not been dredged for a long time, silt has cut the water to an alarming level. Some feed has been provided as a first step, she said.
Shahnewaz Siraji, Rangpur divisional director (additional charge) of the Department of Fisheries, visited the sanctuary recently and gave assurances that every necessary step would be taken to protect the breeding ground.
Sanctuaries like Kadamtali are one of the main hopes for bringing native fish back to northern rivers; delay in dredging and feeding risks losing the brood stock, with knock-on effects for wetland catches and fishers' incomes nearby.
The report is by Krishi Shomoy's Thakurgaon correspondent.
Source: Krishi Shomoy
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