Two-month hilsa ban begins

The government’s two-month ban on catching, selling and transporting of hilsa began on Sunday.

A 90-kilometre stretch of the Padma and Meghna rivers in Chandpur have been turned into a sanctuary for hilsa after the ban came into effect. It will continue till 1 May.

Md Asadul Baki, district fisheries officer, said they conducted drives from 12:00am to 1:30am on Sunday but found no fisherman in the two rivers.

Mahbub Rashid, assistant fisheries officer, Chandpur Sadar upazila, said the authorities have declared 90km from Matlab Uttar Upazila’s Shatnol area to Charbhoirabi in Haimchar upazila as sanctuary.

All the upazilas in the district have formed individual taskforce committees to strictly implement the ban, he said.

Hilsa trader Shahajan Sardar, Babul Hazi, and Nurul Islam told UNB that a huge amount of hilsa was caught in January and February which is considered as off season for hilsa fishing.

They hope that the ban would boost production further.

Hilsa has the highest contribution in the country's fish production as the single fish species, the government says. More than 12.09 per cent of the country's fish production comes from hilsa.

In 2017-18, Hilsa production was 517,000 MT, which had an estimated value of around Tk 206.8 billion.