A water sanctuary created on the Padma River near Godagari upazila of Rajshahi district for conserving indigenous riverine fish varieties is failing to fulfil the purpose for various reasons.
The water sanctuary (reservoir) known as Minkut-Jafrabad sanctuary was aimed to produce varieties of indigenous riverine fishes worth about TK 30 million every year. The sanctuary was not only a source of riverine fish and their conservation but also a source of income and employment of several thousand young menof the area. But due to indiscriminate catching of those fish and scarcity of water in the sanctuary during the lean period are the main causes of failure to produce enough fish there.
The fish which are now available at Minkut-Jafrabad sanctuary belonged to riverine pangas, bagha-air, aire, ritha, ruhi, katla, kalboush, boal, chitol and several hundred varieties of small fry fishes like puthi, piyali, ural, kakla, chanda, ghara, bancha, bashpata and pabda, guchi, bain, aikhor, bata, tengra, chingri or shrimp, balia, chela, boumach, maoa and batul. But, due to unabated fishing, these fish are waning and getting rare in the sanctuary.
It is learnt, the government took the project in 2008 on 510 hectares of water bodies on the river Padma which is situated at the confluence of Padma and the Mohananda extended from Rail Bazar of Godagari to Sultanganj near Chapainwabganj border.
Soon after the sanctuary was created, a ban on fishing in the water of the river covering the area was imposed by local administration.
Every year a restriction in fishing at the sanctuary area is imposed from the early rainy season, though many ignorant people, mainly fishermen catch fishes there by defying the ban.
While people involved in enforcing the ban forbade those fishermen to stop fishing there, they often got into an altercation with them and continued to catch fish there.
Godagari upazila fisheries office with the help of Upazila Nirbahi Officer and the members of law enforcement agencies occasionally patrol along the sanctuary areas.
People living at the surrounding areas of the sanctuary are also alarmed through microphone announcements of punitive measures in violation of the restrictions.
As a result of such actions, people do not dare to visit the water body during day time, but at night they allegedly catch fishes from the statuary by evading vigilance of law enforcement agency members.
It was also impossible to guard the huge water body on the river Padma regularly.
As a result, local beneficiaries including Mahtab Uddin and Golam Gousul Azam in Bidirpur area have demanded to deploy river police at the site of the sanctuary so that none of the fishermen dare to fish inside the sanctuary area.