HOMELESS HILSA

The ocean fish that swims against the tide to spawn in rivers is moving away from Bangladesh 

- KAUSHIK DASGUPTA

АT CHANDPUR, about 150 km south of Dhaka, Anisur Rahman has a scientific explanation for the predicament of fisher people involved in hilsa trade in Bangladesh. Currently senior scientific officer at Bangladesh's Fish Research Institute, Rahman explained, "In scientific parlance, the hilsa is an anadromous fish. It lives most of its lives in the sea but around the monsoon, when it is time to spawn, the hilsa swims against the tide and goes back to the river where its mother had given birth to it." He added that the most delectable ones are those that go the farthest upriver. "But there is barely any hilsa left in the rivers," Rahman said echoing the fishers of Barisal.