At least 76 fishermen were held in Chandpur and Munshiganj districts on Tuesday and Wednesday for catching ilish defying law.
Chandpur district and upazila task forces have arrested 61 fishermen for catching ilish to protect mother ilish in the Padma and Meghna river sanctuary area of the district during the ban period, reports BSS.
This information was given by the District Fisheries officer’s office on Wednesday afternoon.
These fishermen were arrested in separate operations by the task force from October 4 to Tuesday evening, said assistant fisheries officer of the district, Farhana Akhter Ruma.
During the ban period, 32 mobile courts and 213 operations were conducted in the 70-kilometer area of the sanctuary in the last 14 days.
15 landing centers, 137 fish ghats, 732 warehouses and 403 markets were inspected.
495kg of ilish and 242km of net were seized, she said.
The estimated value of the seized net is Tk59 lakh 21 thousand.
42 separate cases were filed against the 61 fishermen who were arrested and a fine of Tk34,000 was also collected.
Chandpur Sadar Upazila Senior Fisheries Officer Mirza Omar Faruk said the campaign to protect the national resource ilish is continuing.
A mobile court in Louhajang upazila in Munshiganj district sentenced 15 people to varying terms of imprisonment for illegally catching mother ilish in the Padma River.
In the first operation conducted early Tuesday, eight individuals were arrested, and authorities seized 10 kilograms of ilish and 30,000 meters of illegal current nets.
The court sentenced each of the eight to eight days of simple imprisonment, reports newspapers.
During a second operation from 10am to 2pm, seven more people were detained, and 1,50,000 meters of illegal current nets were confiscated. Each of the seven was sentenced to ten days of simple imprisonment.
Louhajang Upazila Nirbahi Officer (UNO) Md Nesar Uddin said: “Some unscrupulous fishermen were illegally hunting ilishduring the banned season. The operations targeted areas of the Padma River including Gaudia, Kolma, Sidarchar, and Bejgaon.”
Senior Fisheries Officer Md Rezaul Islam said that the mobile court proceedings were conducted by Assistant Commissioner and Executive Magistrate Masud Parvez from the district commissioner’s office.
The seized fish were distributed among orphans in local madrasas, while the confiscated nets were destroyed by fire.
The convicted individuals have been sent to Munshiganj District Jail.
