EnvironmentIn Bhairab, Kishoreganj, rubbish piles up on the riverbank, municipal waste and plastic go straight into the Meghna and canals are being filled in, threatening aquatic life and biodiversity.
FisheriesWith the 22-day ban to protect spawning hilsa lifted, fishers are back on the Meghna and Tentulia in Bhola, hoping to clear their debts. Some say influential people's men caught brood hilsa during the ban.
FisheriesDespite the 22-day ban to protect spawning hilsa, rice eateries in at least seven markets along the Meghna in Matlab Uttar, Chandpur, are openly selling fried hilsa with roe.
Chittagong University research points to estuary plankton and the fat it builds; only about 2 per cent of Bangladesh's hilsa comes directly from the Padma, while most of the big, flavoursome fish are caught in the Meghna basin.
Catching and selling the species is banned under the Wildlife (Conservation and Security) Act 2012, yet the fish was auctioned for about Tk 90,000 and cut up at Chairman Ghat; the district fisheries officer says the fisheries law itself does not bar it.
The fish went for about Tk 1,340 a kilo including VAT and is bound for Jatrabari in Dhaka; the fisheries officer says river-caught pangas of this size is rare and commands far more than farmed fish.
FisheriesOn 6 July 2026 a large hilsa from the Meghna weighing 2 kg 130 g was sold at auction for Tk 9,000 at the Tulatuli fish landing in Bhola Sadar.
FisheriesA two-kilogram "king hilsa" caught in the Meghna was auctioned for Tk 9,300 at Monpura's Ramnewaj fish ghat in Bhola on 29 June 2026, Jagonews24 reported. The buyer, wholesaler Momin Talukder, supports Brazil at the football World Cup.
FisheriesA "king hilsa" of about 2.5 kg caught in the Meghna at Daulatkhan in Bhola was sold for Tk 11,600 at the Majhirhat fish landing on 25 June 2026.
FisheriesDepartment of Fisheries figures showed hilsa production slipping from 571,000 tonnes in 2022-23 to 504,000 tonnes in 2024-25, while the average weight of the fish was falling too.
FisheriesIn May 2026, fishers in Bhola were finding almost no hilsa in the Meghna and Tetulia rivers after the two-month ban ended, and prices in the town's markets rose sharply. The district fisheries officer and a BFRI hilsa researcher put the shortage down to climate change.
FisheriesOn 30 April 2026, the last day of a two-month ban on all fishing in the hilsa sanctuaries to protect jatka, fishers in Chandpur had mended their boats and nets and were waiting to go back to the Padma and Meghna at midnight.
FisheriesBangladesh produced about 5 lakh tonnes of hilsa in 2024-25, the lowest in eight years, the fisheries minister said on 6 April 2026. In a Jago News column on 11 April, the paper's deputy editor argued that the assurance now had to be matched by action.
