Cattle graze in Chalan Beel as a vast area of the water body dried up this year due to poor rainfall, below, a number of fishermen's boats lie idle as there is not sufficient fish in the greatly reduced water body. Photo: STAR

Fish production in greater Chalan Beel area has reduced drastically this year due to inadequate rainfall, making around 20,000 fishermen along the water body jobless.

Sources said Chalan Beel, the largest water body in the northern region, produces huge amount of fishes that are usually supplied to capital Dhaka and other parts of the country every year.

Fishermen and traders also produce dried fish as they have got huge quantity of fishes from the water body every year. In the past years, they exported dried fish worth about 100 crore to different countries.

Locals said they have seen a completely different picture this time as the fishermen could not catch fishes like the past years.

Local fishermen, traders and experts said many mother fishes could not release eggs this year because of poor rainfall while a significant portion of the eggs and fries was damaged for this reason.

They said flooding is a regular phenomenon in the low-lying Chalan Beel area which is most suitable for breeding of fish. As no flood occurred in the area this year, fish production reduced significantly, they said.

Baki Howlader, 45, a fisherman of Mohisluti village in Tarash upazila, said it has now become very tough for them to maintain their family as they could not catch sufficient amount of fish from the water body.

Mizanur Rahman Mizan, president of Mohisluti Fisheries Warehouse Owners Association, said a good number of fish warehouses were set up in the area in the recent years depending on the fish production from Chalan Beel.

He said the warehouses of only Mohisluti area used to sell fishes worth between 60 and 70 lakh taka a day in the past years but it has fallen to six to seven lakh taka per day because of less production.

Zillur Rahman, acting district fisheries officer, also blamed inadequate rainfall for poor fish production in Chalan Beel area this year.

He advised people in the areas to excavate more and more ponds so that they can produce fishes to meet the growing demand of the country's major protein resource.

Alauddin and Shomsher Ali, owners of an ice factory at Mohisluti Bazar told The Daily Star that they are also facing loss due to short supply of fishes, as their business depends on catching fish. They said around 50,000 people are directly or indirectly involved in the fish business.

Talking to The Daily Star, some fishermen alleged that a section of local influential people are catching fishes illegally by cotton nets at different points of Hatikumrul-Bonpara highway. They identified the points as Magura Binod, Shyampur, Ambaria, Hamkuria, Birol, Nado Sayodpur, Dhamair, Charkushabari, Sabujpara, Makorshon, Kamarshon, Biaghat, Handial and Paikpara Bridge area.

Earlier, Sirajganj fisheries officer lodged a case against 22 people including Tarash upazila vice chairman Nazim Uddin on charge of trying to take permission for fishing by cotton net illegally using forged signature of a minister.