EnvironmentBeside the rows of hijal and koroch trees at Golabari in Tanguar Haor, nature writer Mokarram Hossain found a trailing vine with lantern-like fruit, latafutki or balloon vine (Cardiospermum halicacabum), which springs up by itself each year as the haor dries.
CropsIn Shalla, Sunamganj, haor water has drained in Ashwin instead of Kartik, and farmers fear the Boro land will dry hard before seedbeds can be sown, needing extra irrigation.
CropsIRRI's Climate-Smart Rice Value Chain project in Bangladesh's haor region has reached 3,000 farm households directly, set up five women-run community seed banks and trained more than 2,000 farmers in agri-entrepreneurship.
LivestockSunamganj's Derai upazila has 233 duck farms, many run by once-jobless young men, producing eggs worth about Tk 1.5 crore a year; farmers say water-body leaseholders block their ducks and vaccines are scarce.
FisheriesBangladesh produced 5.119 million tonnes of fish in FY2024-25, but growth fell to 1.85 percent, the lowest in five years, as reliance on commercial farming, rising costs and degraded open waters weigh on the sector.
Most saplings planted in Sunamganj under the government's plan to plant 250 million trees in five years are dying from poor planting and no aftercare, and fewer were planted than recorded.
The Bangladesh Institute of Nuclear Agriculture's Sunamganj sub-station is training haor farmers in regionally suited rice, mustard and groundnut varieties developed with nuclear techniques and mutation breeding.
CropsAfter hill run-off drowned the Boro crop last Baishakh, haor farmers brought home less than half a normal harvest and now face the market.
A fishermen's cooperative holding a three-year lease on the second section of the Ghasi river in Madhyanagar, Sunamganj, has e-mailed a complaint to the upazila administration accusing a local BNP leader of entering the leased water and taking fish with China duari nets.
Md. Laskar Ali, 71, has pressed pure mustard oil in a horse-drawn wooden ghani in Narayantala village on the Sunamganj border for 45 years; the business has kept his family comfortable and earned him an honour from the upazila administration.
About 400,000 farmers in the haor belt of Sunamganj are stuck with stored paddy as prices fall several hundred taka a maund below last year's rates.
Uncontrolled engine boats and rubbish left by visitors have upset the wetland's biodiversity, prompting an indefinite ban by the district administration.
Submerged paddy is spreading daily across Sunamganj, Kishoreganj and Netrokona, harvested grain is rotting for lack of sun, and the Flood Forecasting and Warning Centre warns the haor flooding may worsen.
Four spells of rain and hail since mid-March have stalled the boro harvest in Netrokona and Moulvibazar; Netrokona puts its losses at Tk 62.65 crore and the prime minister has promised three months of support for affected farmers.
Bangladesh Meteorological Department data show 3,658 people killed by lightning between 2015 and 2025, with Sunamganj in Sylhet the worst-hit district; meteorologists trace the risk to haor moisture, the hills to the north-east and the collision of dry and humid air masses.
With paddy lost to flash floods, haor farmers face an acute shortage of cattle feed, and a veterinary university has stepped in with feed and medicine.
EnvironmentGovernment food aid is under way across the flood-hit haor, and people hope it will help them recover, though some complain of irregularities.
