During the main breeding season of hilsa, a ban has been issued to catch hilsa for 22 days to protect mother hilsa.
Hilsa fishing is prohibited for 22 days from midnight on Wednesday (October 11).
Which will continue till November 2. During this time, fishing, transportation, marketing, and storage will be prohibited.
More than two lakh fishermen will become unemployed. Due to this, they will face scarcity and uncertainty. However, 25 kg of rice will be given to each fisherman for rehabilitation during the ban period. The fishermen demanded that the rice be distributed at the appointed time.
Various fish ghats and fishing villages of Bhola were visited, since fishing will be closed for 22 days, boats and trawlers are being moored at the ghats. Some are going to the river to fish for the last time before the ban. But they have to return before 12 o’clock tonight. Some have already brought all fishing equipment including nets, and boats to the ghat.
Even if they are willing to accept the government’s ban, the fishermen are worried about how to spend their days with their families. Therefore, the fishermen demand the speedy distribution of rehabilitation rice at the scheduled time.
Karib Hossain, a fisherman in the Elisha area, said that fishing is stopping, so I have brought the net boat to the shore. We demand speedy distribution of the rice that the government will give to the fishermen during the ban.
Hannan, another fisherman, said that there was not much fish caught this season, so I could not pay all the debts. Now the fishing is stopping, it will be in crisis again.
Fisherman Abdur Rahim said that catching hilsa is prohibited for 22 days, if the collection of installments from NGOs had stopped during this period, then I could have been better at least to some extent.
It is known that although there are 1 lakh 65 thousand registered fishermen in Bhola, rice has been allocated in the name of 1 lakh 33 thousand 899 fishermen. Even after being registered, many will not be lucky enough to be resettled, and many fishermen will have to spend their days in debt.
Fishermen say that many are burdened with debt due to the lack of hilsa in this full season. In the meantime, they are disoriented in the hope that the ban on catching hilsa will be lifted again.
Many people including Zubair, Farid, and Ilyas said that the income has stopped, and it will be difficult to run the family. So, I demand to give rice to all fishermen.
However, the Department of Fisheries says that strict operations will be conducted to protect mother hilsa. And 25 kg of rice will be given to registered fishermen to alleviate the crisis of fishermen.
District Fisheries Officer Molla Emdadulla said, if the Hilsa campaign is successful, the production of Hilsa in the river will increase. So extensive preparations have been made to make the campaign successful.
Meanwhile, the Naval Police is conducting awareness activities to prevent fishing. They are saying that there is a strong campaign to protect mother hilsa.
In charge of Bhola Naval Police. Akhtar Hossain said we will conduct raids in the river regularly. There will be round-the-clock patrolling to ensure that no one can catch any fish including hilsa during the prohibited time. We conducted awareness meetings and distributed leaflets to prevent fishermen from fishing at the ghats.
To ensure the smooth breeding of hilsa, 90 km of Meghna from Ilisha to Char Pial of Manpura and 100 km of Tentulia River from Veduria to Char Rustam of Patuakhali will be under the ban. Because these points of the river are one of the migration areas of hilsa. All types of fishing, including hilsa, are prohibited at these points during the prohibited period.
