Thousands of Fishers Head to the Sundarbans for the Dried-Fish Season, Weighed Down by Debt and the Fear of Pirates

Thousands of fishers and fish traders are heading into the Sundarbans on Friday for the dried-fish (shutki) production season, carrying a fourfold burden: loans from moneylenders on their heads, fear of pirate gangs at sea, the risk of natural disasters, and concern over intrusion by Indian fishers.

For the next five months, the season will run on Dublar Char and other chars (river islands) in the Sundarbans, where temporary structures and raised drying platforms will be built. Fishers will catch fish from the sea and dry them on the platforms to produce shutki.

The fishers have already taken loans from moneylenders to buy food, fuel, fishing nets and other equipment, and are preparing their boats. They are set to depart for Dublar Char from Thursday. This season, the government has set a revenue target of Tk 8 crore from the shutki villages.

The Forest Department has issued special instructions to protect fishers from forest bandits. They have been advised to keep their boats side by side and to avoid the deep sea and the deep forest. Alongside the Forest Department, the Special Response Battalion (SRB) and the Coast Guard will be in charge of special security.

According to the Department of Fisheries, Bangladesh's total maritime area, including its exclusive economic zone in the Bay of Bengal, covers 118,813 square kilometres. Fishing activity is limited to waters up to 200 metres deep. Around 237 industrial trawlers and 28,575 mechanised and traditional fishing vessels harvest fish in these waters.

Khulna district currently has 41,645 registered fishers. Of them, about 31,500 from Paikgacha, Koyra, Dakope, Rupsa and Dumuria upazilas fish in the deep sea, and the number grows every year. Paikgacha's 10 villages alone account for 1,500. By private organisations' estimates, however, around 300,000 fishers live in the country's south-western coastal region, most of them fishing in the sea and coastal areas in small engine boats.

Md Shariful Islam, Assistant Conservator of Forests (ACF) of the Sharankhola range under the East Sundarbans Division in Bagerhat, said a revenue target of Tk 8 crore had been set from the four shutki villages at Dublar Char for the 2025-26 fiscal year. The target was missed because of hostile weather and pirate activity. Last season, production of 5,431.7 tonnes of shutki earned revenue of Tk 7,37,22,493.

On Wednesday, fisher Bishwas Shankar of Boalia village in Paikgacha upazila, Khulna, said he is going to sea with 40 fishers in a fleet of five boats. Some of them have fitted out their fleets with moneylender loans of Tk 15 to 20 lakh. But they are worried by the large presence of Indian fishers at sea and the menace of forest pirates.

Another fisher, Boram Sardar, said: 'We did not get much hilsa at sea this season. Because of the Indian fishers, we could not go to the deep sea either. So we are in doubt whether we will get the expected catch this time. Besides, when fish are caught, a share of them has to be given to the forest pirates. All in all, we are anxious.'

Md Kamal Uddin Ahmed, a freedom fighter and president of the Dublar Char Fishermen Group, said pirate activity at sea has made the business highly risky and that fear prevails among the fishers going out to catch fish. There are reports of new pirate gangs organising around the shutki season. Last season, traders had to pay the pirate gangs extortion money running into lakhs of taka.

Khulna Forest Conservator Imran Ahmed said several safety instructions have been given to the fishers going to sea. Forest guards will be deployed at various points in the Sundarbans. Fishers have been forbidden from going alone into the deep sea; they have also been told to keep 15 to 20 boats together at night.

Imran Ahmed added that no forest resource of the Sundarbans may be used to build fisher huts, depot huts or fish-drying platforms. All necessary construction materials must be brought from their own areas. House-building at the shutki villages is scheduled to begin on October 30, and fishing and shutki production will start at the same time.

Nistar Ahmed, commander of SRB-6, said: 'Seventy-four members of six forest pirate gangs have already surrendered. The SRB has a temporary camp at Dublar Char, the largest hub of the shutki trade. Forces operate from there.'

Coast Guard media officer Lieutenant Commander Sabbir Alam Sujan said the Coast Guard's West Zone has taken special security measures to ensure the overall protection of fishers during the upcoming shutki harvest season.