Fish Shortage in Chalan Beel Forces Shut Down of Dried-Fish Yards

A shortage of fish has struck Chalan Beel, including Chatmohar in Pabna, long known as a fish treasury. Not enough fish can be found in the beel. As a result, the dried-fish yards (chatals) of Chalan Beel are in severe distress, and the yards are closing for want of the fish they need. Every year in Ashwin-Kartik, when the beel’s water recedes, fish of many species are found in abundance, including tengra, punti, khalshe, batashi, chela, mola, taki, baim, shol, boal, gojar, magur, shing and koi. Prices are low then. Traders and yard workers spend this season busy making dried fish from these catches. This year, however, there is almost no fish in the beel.

Naju, a fisherman from the Natabaria area of Chatmohar upazila, said no fish suitable for drying can be found. If this continues, the dried-fish yards of the region will have no option but to close, he said. In reply to a question, he said the little fish that is available is expensive. Labour costs are also higher.

Yard owners therefore say they face certain losses this time. Dried-fish traders of the beel area Abdul Gafur, Hobi Sheikh, Barat Ali, Rajab Ali, Shukur Ali, Almas Hossain and Mofazzal Hossain, and workers on the yards, gave the same account.

According to their information, at least a hundred-plus yards in the Chalan Beel area have already closed. The others are gradually heading towards closure. At least 5,000 men and women workers at nearly 300 dried-fish yards in Chalan Beel fear losing their jobs. Ten to 20 workers work at each yard, and women outnumber men among them. When the weather is good, the yards run each season from Ashwin-Kartik to Magh-Falgun. Three maunds of fresh fish yield one maund of dried fish when dried.

Work at the dried-fish yards is what puts two meals a day on the table for the extremely poor men and women workers of the beel area. This time, for want of fish, more than a hundred yards are about to close right at the start of the season. Chalan Beel, which flows through the districts of Pabna, Natore and Sirajganj, has in total 93 beels covering about 1,757 hectares, 32 rivers covering 4,286 hectares, 22 canals covering 120 square kilometres, and countless large ponds and water bodies.

Several thousand families in the Chalan Beel region were involved in making and marketing dried fish. This time they fear losing their livelihoods. It is learned that this dried-fish season had the potential to produce 100 metric tonnes of dried fish worth around Tk 25 crore. But because of the fish shortage, production may not happen. The yards will close soon. Women play the main role in this dried-fish production.

Yet they are being deprived of their fair wages. Md Matin, a dried-fish trader of Chatmohar, said there is a fish shortage in the Chalan Beel region this time, so fish is not available at the yards. Yards begin to be set up at the start of Ashwin. They stay in operation until the water dries up in Agrahayan. Sabina, a woman worker at a yard, said a whole day’s work at a dried-fish yard earns Tk 400. There are more than 50 women workers at Chatmohar’s yards.

It is learned that more than 200 families in Chalan Beel are involved in this seasonal dried-fish work. This time the yards may not run long because of the fish shortage. Chalan Beel’s dried fish is in demand across the country. Every year, because of the fish shortage, its production is falling at an alarming rate. The dried-fish yards are closing down.

As a result, several thousand workers involved face a crisis in their occupation. Yet there was a time when plentiful fish catches led to countless dried-fish yards being set up here. Dried fish was made at nearly 300 yards in the Chalan Beel region. After meeting local demand and being supplied to different parts of the country, this dried fish was also exported abroad.

Fishermen said that in the Chalan Beel area, China duari nets, current nets and badai nets are used to strain the water and take up fish along with countless tiny aquatic creatures. As a result, fish are being wiped out at the root. Because the tiny aquatic creatures that fish feed on during breeding are being destroyed, a breeding crisis is also developing.

For these reasons the quantity of fish in Chalan Beel is much lower this year. So the little fish that is available costs two to three times as much. This has raised the cost of making dried fish several times over. Yard owners are therefore facing losses. Without profit, owners are shutting down their dried-fish yards.

Md Matin, senior upazila fisheries officer of Chatmohar, said the reasons for the low fish catch in Chalan Beel are reckless fishing with China duari and badai nets and by draining water, and the use of chemical pesticides and weedicides on the beel’s farmland. For these reasons the quantity of fish in the beel has gradually fallen every year. Chalan Beel’s dried fish is prized everywhere. If steps are taken to preserve and process dried fish in this region, the dried-fish trade will expand, he said. But in the past few years, dried-fish production has fallen because of the fish shortage.