Unscrupulous greed of some Patuakhali fishermen for quick bucks is endangering the local people, livestock and aquatic resources as they are using insecticides in the canals of coastal areas for increasing the volume of their catches.
Water of the canals and connected rivers has already become so toxic in some areas that a number of cows and buffalos died last week in Sonarchar area after drinking water from the canals. Dead fish are also seen floating in the rivers there as the toxins have been spreading.
“Water in the canals has already become toxic and malodorous. Around a dozen of buffaloes died in the last two weeks as those had drunk water from the canals,” said a local herdsman of Sonarchar last week.
Similar practice of using insecticides is also going on in Char Mantaj and Char Kaffarma areas and in other shoal areas as well, according to the local people.
Influential local individuals are engaging some fishermen in the pernicious practice in collusion with some forest officials, local residents alleged.
Residents of Sonarchar, a shoal, caught two fishermen red handed pouring insecticides into a canal, and handed them over to Rangabali police.
Experts said consumers of the catches that come from the toxic canals might suffer from cancer, kidney problems and other diseases including jaundice, and might develop nausea.
In addition to posing threats to human health, indiscriminate use of the toxins is killing all fishes, fry and other aquatic species in the region.
Alike the Sundarbans, the coastal belt of Patuakhali is also full of mangrove forests where many canals are crisscrossing the area. There are more than 40 canals only in Sonarchar area.
Local forest officials are providing permits to livestock owners for grazing their farm animals in the forestland while they are also permitting fishermen to catch fishes in the canals.
Local residents said the practice of using insecticides to catch fishes has been going on in the areas under Patuakhali forest division for the last few years.
They said this year local influential people leased more than 40 canals in Sonarchar and Char Kaffarma areas for the whole monsoon from the forest department in exchange for a few lakh taka. Leasing of canals in protected areas is, however, prohibited.
Currently one lakh fifteen thousand acres of forestland are under Patuakhali forest division mainly in shoal areas crisscrossed by canals which are connected with rivers.
At the end of the monsoon, the canals are usually full of fishes including Aair, Koral, Bowal, Pangas, Faisa, Parsa and others.
Fishermen use insecticides like Rotenone, Thyodine, and Fostoxin and set up fishing nets at both ends of a canal during low tides. Trapped fishes die within a few minutes and the fishermen just collect them.
The local people said more than 100 maunds of fish are caught every day from those canals which is almost four metric tons, while the Department of Forest charges them a fee of Tk 300 for a maund of the catch.
Sonarchar Bit Officer Kazi Aladuddin, however, denied the allegation of leasing out canals, saying they ‘permitted’ a few fishermen to catch fishes in the canals in exchange for Tk 300 ‘revenue’ per maund of the catch.
The local people confirmed that eight buffalos and three cows died drinking water from those canals, but Alauddin denied the allegation saying those died of diseases.
Following deaths of some livestock, the aggrieved owners caught Aziz Haowlader and Ahsan of Char Mantaj from the bank of a canal in Tapasi Bon area for pouring toxins into the canal.
Char Mantaj Range Officer Touhidul Islam confirmed the incident and said he was preparing to file a case with Rangabali police station in connection with the incident.
Patuakhali district administration instructed the livestock division to investigate the incident and to collect samples of dead fishes for sending those to the capital for laboratory tests.
Categories: Daily Bangladesh News
