280 expeditions-Mobile Court to protect Hilsa in Chandpur. The campaign to protect mother Hilsa has been going on since October 4 in the maritime boundary of Chandpur including 6 sanctuaries of the country. The campaign to protect the national resource Hilsa will continue for 22 days till October 25.
Today, October 20, is the 17th day of the campaign.
Of these, Padma-Meghna District-Upazila Administration, Coast Guard, Naval-Police District Fisheries, and Upazila Fisheries have conducted 225 operations jointly or individually so far and a total of 288 mobile courts.
About 1 crore 52 lakh meters of nets were seized during the operation. The value of which will be more than 20 crores 16 lakh taka. 190 fishermen from Chandpur Sadar, Matlab North, and Haimchar were detained and sent to jail through mobile courts.
District Fisheries Department has filed 75 cases. Besides, 1386 warehouses, 458 markets, and 194 fishing grounds have been monitored. 19 lakh has been auctioned.
The information came from the monitoring room of the district fisheries officer’s office on October 20.
Incidentally, in order to breed Hilsa safely in the Padma-Meghna, all types of fish including Hilsa have been banned. The campaign was started to give the mother Hilsa a chance to lay eggs in freshwater with the aim of increasing the production of the national resource Hilsa.
As a result, 60 km area of Meghna river from Shatnal of Matlab Uttar Upazila to Charbhairabi of Haimchar has been declared a sanctuary.
At this time Hilsa cannot be procured, bought, sold, stocked, and transported. Despite the ban, a class of unscrupulous fishermen did not stop during the expedition. They are secretly fishing in the river and selling it. In order to make the operation a success, the members of the task force have continued their strict campaign in the rivers and fish farms every day with a strict attitude.
In order to increase the production of hilsa, the government has announced a 22-day hilsa breeding season in all breeds of the country. During this period, catching, extracting, selling and marketing of hilsa will be stopped. VGF rice has been allotted to the fishermen in the current financial year under the government’s humanitarian food aid program during the breeding season.
Abdul Gani, 20 October 2021