<i>Acute dearth of fishes in Jhenidah markets</i>
Hybrid pangas and telapia are all that this fish trader has to offer to customers at Natun Bazar in Kaliganj upazila town of Jhenidah district as local fishes are becoming scarcer.Photo: STAR
Jhenidah markets are experiencing an acute crisis of fish for the last several months. Neither big nor small fishes are available, thus limiting the consumer's choice to different types of cultured fishes. Lack of adequate water in the water bodies is the main reason for the shortfall of fish, observe local fishermen and fish traders. According to locals, both bigger and smaller species of fish were available earlier, more so in the rainy season. But that is no longer true as those have disappeared from the markets. Recent visits to the weekly kitchen market in Kaliganj upazila as well as district level weekly market in the town revealed severe crisis of local fish there. Only a small quantity of pond-bred pangash, silver carp, fingerlings of ruhi and telapia were being sold at those markets. No local species of smaller fishes like raina, pabda, puti, bele, tengra, etc were available in the markets. Medium size fishes like shing, magur, sarputi and bigger size fish like ruhi, katla, mrigel, boal, shoil, chital, foli and gojar have almost disappeared from the market. Ranjan Kumar, a fisherman as well as a fish trader at Kaliganj fish market said, the fishermen community are running out of work and leaving their traditional profession finding no alternative. Another fisherman, Ananda said, for fish to be there, water has to be there in the first place! Most of the water bodies, even the rivers, have been drying up through the past decades. Helpless fishermen are trying to get into other work. A large number of the fishermen community also left the country, he added. The District Fisheries Officer (DFO) Prafulla Kumar Sikder said the main reason behind the declining of the fish species is the crisis of water, especially in the twelve rivers of the region. Some influential people have grabbed the rivers and constructed permanent structures on the riverbeds and banks. Besides, the use of insecticide on the crops is destroying the fish from our water bodies and rivers, he said. The DFO added that out of total fish produce of 23,126 tonnes, 815.35 tonnes are caught from Nabaganga, Chitra, Begabati, Fatki, Gorai, Karatoa, Isamati, Kali and Dakua rivers in the district every year. The remaining quantity is procured from ponds, beel, haors and ponds. Total demand of fish for the people of the district was 25,278.75 tonnes a year. The fish traders bring around 2,153.14 tonnes of fish from elsewhere. The area of the rivers was 2,434 hectares, DFO said.
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