Our Correspondent, Bagerhat

Fish drying is going on in full swing at Dublar Char and several other areas in the Sundarbans. Fish drying season has started in the char areas on November 5 which will continue till March. Dublar Char is the largest fish drying centre in the Sundarbans.

The other areas include Alorkol, Narkelbaria, Shelarchar and Meherali Char in the Sharankhola Range of the Eastern Sundarbans Division.

Around 20,000 fishermen are engaged in drying fish after netting them from the sea. The fishermen use more than 30 types of nets to catch fish and dry them in the sun and make it suitable for export.

Various species of fish including rupchanda, churi, laitya and different kinds of shrimp are dried in the areas.

More than ten thousand of fishermen from Chattagram, Barguna, Pirojpur, Satkhira and other districts go to the Sundarbans during the fish drying season. In the five months, they will dry a large quantity of fish in several chars including Dublar Char after netting them from the Bay of Bengal.

Besides the fishermen, fish traders also go there for drying fish for preservation and sale.

The government also gets a large amount of revenue from here. However, fishing in the Sundarbans for a long time cannot improve the financial situation of the fishermen.

According to the fishermen, the fish drying season in the Sundarbans starts every year before the onset of winter. They stay in the Sundarbans for five months, braving natural disasters. But they cannot run their family properly with the money they earn during the fish drying season.

Fisherman Dulal Sheikh of Sharankhola upazila said they have to go to sea during the fish drying season every year after taking loans. They do not get any financial help from the government.

Shukur Ali, a dried fish trader, said with six nets, three trawlers and 30 employees, he goes to the Sundarbans every year during the fish drying season. About Tk 20 lakh is required for a season. This time, he has borrowed the money from local NGOs and moneylenders at high interest.

Contacted, Sundarbans East Forest Divisional Forest Officer Belayet Hossain said they are taking steps to help the affected fishermen.

He added that coronavirus situation may intensify in winter. So, they have allowed fishermen to go to sea on some conditions, which include maintaining health guidelines and hygiene.

Leaders of the fishermen have been asked to follow the health guidelines strictly, Belayet said.

In the fiscal year 2019-20, revenue of Tk 2.73 crore has been collected from there while it was Tk 2.46 crore in the 2018-19 fiscal year. The forest department has set a revenue collection target of Tk 3.20 crore for the 2020-21 financial year.