More than 50 government water-bodies in Sreepur upazila of the district are being illegally filled by some imprudent locals who took them on lease for fish farming.
Consequently, the biodiversity of the upazila has become imbalanced and fish collection from natural sources has become minimal.
Sources at Sreepur fisheries office said there are 191 water-bodies in the upazila and some influential local people took half of them on lease from the local administration for one year, although the water-bodies were supposed to go to land-less people.
The lessees renew their leases regularly and have been filling the lakes while running their businesses so that the authorities concerned could not identify their misdeed easily.
While visiting, this correspondent found that one company named Standard Industrial Group erected a boundary wall around the three-acre water-body they had leased in Mulaid area of Telihati union a couple of years ago and filled it.
Afterwards, the company alleged that they had renewed the lease earlier, and started illegally building establishments on the public land, which was a gross violation of the terms and conditions.
Akin to the aforesaid incident, a public lake had already been filled by a lessee near Gararan Madrasa in Barmi, erasing all traces of any water-body from there.
The filling of one water-body near Mizanur Rahman Degree College in Sreepur municipality was at full swing while another such case was seen at Ananda bazar in Gazipur Union.
In this way, the injudicious lessees have been gradually encroaching on the public water-bodies.
A fish cultivator Akter Hossain from Barmi union alleged that indigenous fish from the local lakes have become rare in the bazars and they have to import these species from elsewhere in the country for cultivation. Incessant filling of water-bodies by the unscrupulous lessees has caused this problem, he alleged.
Sreepur Assistant Commissioner (land) Nazmul Islam Bhuiyan said they have cancelled the leases of most of the water-bodies on charges of earth filling.
Regarding the Standard Group boundary wall, the commissioner said they were taking preparations to recover the lake.
Sreepur Senior Fisheries official Mohammad Emdadul Hoque assured that actions would be taken against the wrongdoers.