Fishing in Sundarbans banned for 2 months

Netting of fish has been banned in all the canals of the Sundarbans from July 1 to August 31 as part of an initiative to help safe breeding and preservation of aquatic creatures.

The move is also being imposed to stop netting of fishes by spraying poison in the canals, said Divisional Forest Officer (DFO) of Sundarbans East Mahamudul Hasan.

The area of the Sundarbans in Bangladesh part is 6,737 square kilometres of which the aquatic area is 1,874.1 sq km. This is 31.15 percent of the total Sundarbans, he said.

In the Sundarbans, there are 13 big rivers including Bhola, Baleshwar, Salah, Passur and around 450 small creeks.

The mangrove forest which is constantly flooded with tidal waters is home to 210 varieties of local fish like bhetki, poopchanda, datina, chitra, pangas, leyte, churi, med, parese, poya, tapsay, lakhna, koi, magur, shol, kain and hilsa.

A total of 24 species of shrimp including Bagda, Chali, Chaka and Chamti are found here. There are total of 14 species of crab and six species of dolphins in the Sundarbans.

A section of fishermen spray poison in the waterways of the Sundarbans to easily catch fish, but owing to the poisoning, all species of aquatic species including small and big fish are being killed, the DFO said.

The poisoning also has an adverse effect on the biodiversity of the Sundarbans and destroys the breeding cycle of very important aquatic resources.