Mir Khairul Alam, Satkhira:

The biodiversity of Sundarbans is now under threat due to continuous fishing with poison in its water-bodies by some greedy fishermen.

Sources said, the trend of fishing with poison in the canals flowing inside the Sundarbans is increasing day by day. A group of unscrupulous fishermen has now become reckless.

Environmentalists fear that, if fishing with this process continues, the entire Sundarbans area will become devoid of fish and the biodiversity of the Sundarbans and its plants will be completely destroyed in future.

Investigation revealed that fishermen mix pesticides with rice, Chira or other things in the canals of the Sundarbans before the tide and sprinkle them in the canal water. Within a short time, different species of fishes float in the water after consuming the poisonous foods. The fishermen catch the fishes and supply those to local shops and various markets.

There are allegations that, fishermen are regularly fishing with poisoning after managing and paying money to a class of dishonest forest guards.

Sometimes, they have to pay Tk 10,000 for per trawler and Tk 5,000 for per boat. By managing the forest officials, they catch more fish in the sanctuary canals by poisoning in an easy process.

In addition, they have to pay bribe to the local law enforcers to ensure that the fish caught by the fishermen reach their homes safely. Although, a few people are caught occasionally, the crime gangs are carrying out the activities randomly due to lack of exemplary punishment.

It is known that, the activities of fishing with poison continue under the shadow of influential people, even after imposing ban on fishing and crab hunting. The Forest Department and the local administration are unable to suppress them despite conducting raids.

Talking to several people including Yasin, Kamal, Al Amin of Koyra Upazila on the coast of the Sundarbans, it has been learned that unscrupulous fishermen enter into the Sundarbans with the patronization of some local public representatives, politicians, fishmongers and even influential journalists. Most of them are accompanied by a class of pesticide sellers. People in the gang freely collect pesticides from those sellers and misuse it for fishing. Again, in some cases, some unscrupulous forest guards and officials of the Forest Department pretend not to see this in exchange of bribes. These fish are hunted with various types of pesticides used to control crop pests. Among these, the pesticides most commonly used by fishermen are Diamgro, Fighter, Ripcord, and Pescacol, which are seriously harmful for public health.

It is learned that several cases were filed for illegal entry into the Khulna Range of the Sundarbans during the prohibited time. At that time, 23 accused were arrested.

In addition, an engine-powered trawler, 63 boats, 4 motorcycles, 16 kg of deer meat, 639 kg of shrimp/white fish, 35 kg of dried shrimp, 190 kg of crab, 600 deer traps and 14 bottles of poison were also seized.

If the violation continues, biodiversity will be lost. Therefore, the locals sought the intervention of the administration to take legal action against this gang.