Fisherman Ibrahim Sheikh explains how he and his fishing folks pour poison in canals inside the Sundarbans to catch fish that go to different markets, including Dhaka.
Innumerable narrow canals crisscross the Sundarbans, the largest mangrove forest in the world, stretching over six lakh hectares of land in the mouth of the Bay of Bengal. The canals turn full to the brim during the tide bringing in different varieties of fish and the fishermen place nets during the ebb.
“When water starts receding, we mix ripcord with the water upstream of the canals and place the nets further down. Fish, especially shrimp, start floating and deposit in the nets as the water comes down,” Ibrahim, 30, told the Dhaka Tribune as this correspondent visited the coastal village of Sutarkhali in Khulna opposite the Sundarbans.
He said poisoning made fishing easier.
“Not only the fish, snake, crab, snail and many other species die due to the use of poison. I feel very bad, but I have nothing to do,” said Ibrahim, who was caught by forest officials and sent to jail for poison fishing. He has been behind bars for 15 days and the case was yet to be settled.
He said unless the use of poison was stopped, the whole Sundarbans would be devoid of fish and other species in near future.
Ibrahim claimed that the fishermen must take permission from the Forest Department to fish inside the Sundarbans and pay extra money to employees.
“Unless I get a huge amount of fish, I cannot survive. If bribing the forest officials does not end, the fishermen will continue to use poison,” he said.
“We will not consider what will happen to the Sundarbans.”
Delicious fish such as shrimp, Parshay, Tengra, Datina and other brackish varieties are caught by poisoning, using insecticides such as Ripcord, fishermen say.
Ripcord – generic name Cypermethrin – is highly to moderately toxic to aquatic organisms and it results in fatality if swallowed. Even it causes irritation on skin and eye.
Another fisherman Saddam Hussain said the shrimp caught by poisoning turns red and rots easily. The fish caught by poisoning sometimes had injuries in the head. Its price is cheaper than those caught without poison.
He said the fish went to the markets, although some traders recently started testing the contamination in the fish.
Fish trader Rabiul Mallick, 38, of Sutarkhali village told the Dhaka Tribune that the amount of fish had come down due to use of poison in the Sundarbans.
“The government must do whatever necessary to stop poison fishing; otherwise the fishermen, the traders and others would starve,” he said, referring that the use of insecticides had started around eight years back.
At least 10,000 people in Dacope upazila depend on the Sundarbans, said Krishnapado, 60.
Prof Kawser Ahmed, a Dhaka University teacher carrying out research on the pollution in the Sundarbans, told the Dhaka Tribune: “This has certainly put impact on the fish and other resources of the Sundarbans and the environment cycle”. “This must stop now”.
According to the government figures, around three lakh people directly depend on the Sundarbans for earning bread.
Fisheries Department said 1,143 metric tonnes of fish were harvested from the Sundarbans in 2013 while the amount was 1,145 metric tonnes in 2012. Previous year, 1,085 metric tonnes of fish was caught.
The forest officials declined to comment on the allegations of bribe brought against them.
Environmentalists fear the animals such as Royal Bengal tiger, deer and others would also die drinking the poisonous water.