Dried fish output in Chalan Beel falls by more than 140 tonnes in a year as fish grow scarce

Dried fish production has fallen sharply in the Chalan Beel wetlands in Sirajganj as fish have become scarce. With supplies low, many drying yards, known as chatals, could not be opened at all, and those that did open have far less work than before.

At the Mahishluti dried fish village in Tarash upazila of the district, most chatals were found lying idle. In some places the mats used for drying fish were empty, and in others only a small quantity of punti fish was being dried. Workers were spending idle days at a time when the yards should have been at their busiest.

According to the Sirajganj fisheries department, 73 dried fish mahals in Ullapara and Tarash upazilas produced 275.8 tonnes of dried fish in the 2024-25 fiscal year. In the following fiscal year, 2025-26, production at the same number of mahals fell to 135 tonnes, a drop of 140.8 tonnes in a single year.

Ali Aslam, owner of a dried fish chatal in the Mahishluti area, said fish in the beel had fallen alarmingly this year compared with recent years. Fish were available at the landing centres, he said, but at much higher prices, making it difficult to buy fish at those prices and turn them into dried fish.

Kalam Sarkar, a dried fish trader from the Mannan Nagar area, said production had stopped at many mahals because of the fish shortage, leaving hundreds of working people in economic hardship.

Women workers Aleya and Fatema of the Mahishluti area clean fish and dry them at the chatals from dawn to dusk each day. They said they receive only 250 taka for about 12 hours of work. With dried fish work reduced this year, many women workers have become unemployed.

Dried fish made from species in Chalan Beel, including shol, boal, kholse, taki, tengra and chanda, is sent to Saidpur, Nilphamari, the capital and other parts of the country.

Abdullah Al Mahmud, associate professor of zoology at Sirajganj Government College, said the filling of water bodies, unplanned pond digging, construction of roads and embankments, and industrialisation were shrinking fish habitats in Chalan Beel. The killing of mother fish in badai nets was also obstructing fish breeding, he said.

Sirajganj district fisheries officer Mahbubur Rahman said the fish shortage had arisen for several reasons, including the absence of floodwater, and that traders were struggling with dried fish production as a result.