Halda carp spawning ground under threat

The river Halda, the only natural carp breeding ground in the world and major source of major carps like Rui, Katla and Mrigel, is facing a threat to its existence.
Man-made problems and natural disasters brought the spawning ground to this position of decline.
Interference from man include cutting bends in the river to slow down its current, massive sand lifting, dumping of industrial waste, unplanned construction, rampant construction of sluice gates and indiscriminate catching and killing of mother fishes.
Natural disasters like climate change and rising salinity of the river water are also responsible for this situation.
Due to such interventions, mother fishes, which normally chose the Halda to release their eggs, are now coming here in very lower numbers for breeding.
Md Manzurul Kibria of zoology department of Chittagong University said the last ten years has seen a decline in the number of mother fishes arriving at the Halda to spawn.
During the 80s and 90s, over 1,000 kilogrammes (kg) of eggs were collected from the Halda river every year. But now this has come down to 20 to 30kg every year, Kibria said.
“If we want to get back the Halda to its earlier state, it is urgent to formulate a long-term plan for it,” he said.
The government took a lot of projects in this regard on various occasions but those failed for lack of proper guidance and planning, he added.
He criticised a project titled “Restoration of the natural fish breeding habitats of the river Halda”, whose main objective was to restore the river, for progressing in a slow pace.
He said though the river determines socio-economic fate of the people living in the adjoining areas, the authorities could not involve the local people with this project.
District Assistant Fishery Officer Mizanur Rahman said progress of the project was slow due to some official bottlenecks but now is back on track.
He said they united 43 local organisations of Hathazari and Raozan, compromised of local people and fishermen, under the banner of “Beneficiary of Halda” to accelerate the project.
The government gave around Tk 1.5 crore as soft loan to 1,050 members of these organisations, he added.
He said in the past the fishermen used “kua” to cultivate eggs but under this project, the government made hatcheries in the river for better production.
Mohammad Imam Hossain, chief executive of Nowzwuan, an organisation working on the river Halda under this project, said they are creating awareness among the local people and farmers.
They informed the local people about the benefits of not fishing in the Halda during the “off-season” and got a good response from them, he added.
But there have been recent incidents of mother fishes releasing eggs in the Halda at unusual times. Mother fishes usually depend on water temperature, water current, rain and thunder to lay eggs during the full moon and basically release eggs in May and June. But this year they released eggs without any such knowledgeable signs which experts termed an alarming incident.
Kibria said there were three reasons behind the increasing salinity of water in the river. Local people cut a lot of bends in the river, reducing length of the river by 25 kilometres, the level of water was lower than sea level due to sluice gates and shortage of water supply from the connected canals.
Nurul Hudda, a local egg collector, said the fish released eggs at 4:00am on April 19, which was not usual. By the time they went to collect the eggs around 2:00pm, they found most of them damaged, he added.

 

Courtesy of The Daily Star

Related News

Maize farming leading char farmers to financial stability

Mostafa Shabuj About two decades ago, farmers in remote char areas of northern Bangladesh were quite impoverished due to the consequences of repeated flooding and other natural disasters. Now though, these farmers have achieved financial stability by growing maize, which is more suitable for the region compared to other crops. For example, more profitable crops ... Read more

Farmers find hope in solar-powered irrigation

EAM Asaduzzaman Life is easier now for Abu Taleb, 45, a potato farmer of Saddyo Puskuruni village in Rangpur. A year ago, high irrigation costs for diesel-run pumps, which he bore out-of-pocket, made it difficult for him to provide for his three children. Now, after switching to solar-powered irrigation, his livelihood has changed for the ... Read more

Shoilmari: A river dead, livelihoods endangered

Dipankar Roy The once mighty Shoilmari river in Khulna’s Batiaghata upazila can now only be called a river on paper. In just three years, it has been filled with silt. The once 150-metre-wide river has now turned into a 3 to 4-metre narrow channel. Boats cannot sail there in low tide and people can cross ... Read more

Countrywide heavy rains until 13 Sep

News Desk : dhakamirror.com The current heavy rains brought on by the depression at the Bay of Bengal are predicted to last until Tuesday, according to the weather forecast service. The low will weaken in next 24 hours and move towards the plain land through Odisha and towards Chhatishgarh through West Bengal afterwards. Mostafa Kamal ... Read more

120 hills disappeared from Chattogram in 4 decades

An environmental group called Bangladesh Environment Forum alleged Sunday that 120 hills had vanished from Chattogram city in the past forty years. The port city’s hills decreased from 32.37 square kilometers in 1976 to 14.02 square kilometers in 2008, according to a written statement from the forum’s general secretary, Aliur Rahman. He was addressing during ... Read more

A young agro enthusiast helping farmers in Tangail

Mirza Shakil When the pandemic hit and in-person classes at universities were suspended, Shakil Ahmed, then a final-year student of agriculture department at Noakhali Science and Technology University, had returned home. But he refused to sit idle, and so, asked his father for a plot of land to farm squash. The yield was massive as ... Read more

Brood fish release sample eggs in Halda

Brood fish in the Halda have released sample eggs – indicating full spawning – since Saturday night at various points of the river. Egg collectors got 200-500 grammes of eggs on average since Saturday night from the river. Ashu Barua from Madunaghat area, a seasoned egg collector, told The Daily Star that they started coming ... Read more

Ban on catching hilsa to end at midnight after 2 months

The ban on catching hilsa will be lifted at midnight today after two months. The fisheries department said due to the two-month ban, it will be possible to collect the desired target of 6 lakh tonnes of hilsa fish this time, reports our Barishal correspondent. However, many fishermen said they are not interested in going to ... Read more

Second chance at education for Pirojpur elderly

“I never knew there’s so much beauty and fun hidden inside a book,” said 44-year-old Salma Begum, who learned to read and write very recently. “I had to blindly trust anyone who could read to let me know the contents of important documents. Now I’m self-sufficient in that regard, and use my own signature instead of ... Read more

Barind farmers at mercy of DTW operators

Ethnic minorities suffer more Suzon Ali . Rajshahi Farmers in the Barind region are held hostage by Barind Multipurpose Development Authority deep tube well operators. Some farmers in the region said that deep tube well operators did not irrigate their land properly while others said that operators extracted extra money and ‘undue benefits’ from them. Talking ... Read more

Local seeds for local needs

Female farmers of Khulna exchange varieties at fair Dipankar Roy Seeds of local varieties – preserved by families for generations – have been the most adaptive way of cultivation for the distinct climatic conditions of the country’s coastal areas. In what is considered a yearly tradition, female farmers exchange the seeds at the “seed fair”, ... Read more

Ingenious indigenous innovation

Kabuljan Begum’s eco-friendly oven makes waves across Rajshahi Anwar Ali Fourteen years ago, Kabuljan Begum developed an environment-friendly oven to keep herself and her family safe from air pollution caused by open-fire ovens. Her solution has now become the go-to choice for hundreds of others in the rural areas of Rajshahi region, covering three districts ... Read more

Tow month long hilsha fishing ban imposes from today

In a bid to conserve Jatka or juveniles of hilsa, the government has imposed a two-month ban on netting, selling and transporting hilsa in six sanctuaries from today (March 1). Bimal Chandra Das, fisheries officer of Barishal, said the ban is going to be observed across 432km area of six districts, including three in Barishal division. ... Read more

Food crisis hits bee colonies

Thousands kill each other, climate change blamed Emran Hossain This year’s frequent, untimely winter rain left bees, a key pollinator, in an unprecedented conflict as they died in thousands fighting over food, beekeepers and government agricultural extension officials said. Affected beekeepers said that they never faced a crisis of food for bees to this extent ... Read more

Scientists expect Kakila will roam into water again

Freshwater garfish, known as Kakila in Bangladesh, once found in open water bodies, especially in rivers, canals, haors etc., is a delicious fish that is rich in nutrients, but now it is almost extinct, due to the effects of climate, natural disasters and various man-made habitats, damage to breeding grounds and the number of the ... Read more

The fastest Sailfish caught in the Bay of Bengal

Curious people rushed to see and touch the Sailfish caught in the fisherman’s nets on Wednesday Two marine fish have been caught in fishermen’s nets in the Bay of Bengal. Fishermen locally call it ‘golpata’ fish because of the shape of its back fins. Experts say, actually these are sailfish, members of the billfish family ... Read more

Bad days for good farmers in Bangladesh 

Chemically grown pineapples see higher demand Consumers are falling for chemically grown eye-candy pineapples that look bigger and brighter than the naturally farmed ones but actually taste bland and have less nutrient content. This trend is hurting the farmers who are not using excessive chemicals while growing the fruit. To get a firsthand experience of ... Read more

Three in one

Cost effective agricultural tool made in Dinajpur A locally manufactured harvester in Dinajpur proves to be an all-in-one device, while the cost is relatively low. Anwar Hossain, a 51-year old quack at Dakkhin Basudevpur village under Phulbari upazila, designed the machine that can harvest, thresh and pack paddy or wheat simultaneously. The machine, which requires only ... Read more

Grabbers feast on Bakkhali river

Lax legal process encourages enchroachers in Cox’s Bazar Bakkhali river in Cox’s Bazar is getting narrower day by day as the land grabbers are out to encroach on both sides of the river by erecting illegal structures. Many of the grabbers have either built structures or hung signboards on the encroached land along the banks ... Read more

Unusual rain at end of monsoon

Just before the end of the monsoon, the country has been experiencing unusual October rains following three drier months in a row when the monsoon was supposed to be most active with heavy rainfalls. Usually, the country experiences a maximum of eight rainy days in October, the Met office website says. But this time around, ... Read more