4 fishermen nabbed with fish and equipment

Bagerhat Correspondent :

Forest guards arrested four fishermen, including notorious fisherman Liton Matubbar, while fishing illegally in a canal prohibited for fishing in the Kachikhali Sanctuary of the Eastern Sundarbans on Saturday morning.

Fish worth several lakhs of taka, two nets, and two dinghies (small boats) were seized.

A case was filed against the detainees under the Forest Act, and they were produced before the Bagerhat court on Saturday afternoon.

According to forest department sources, forest guards led by Forester Dilip Majumdar, Team Leader of Smart Team-1 of the Sharankhola Range of the Eastern Sundarbans, conducted a raid in the Dudhraj Canal of the Kachikhali Sanctuary on Saturday (October 11) morning and arrested four fishermen, including notorious fisherman Liton Matubbar, while they were fishing illegally.

At that time, 40 kg of lumpfish and 50 kg of various species of white fish worth lakhs of Taka, two nets, and two dinghies were seized.

The arrested fishermen are Liton Matubbar (45), Taijul Hawlader (18), Abu Khalek Mridha (50), and Hamid Hawlader (52).

They hail from Bakultala and Sonatala villages of Sharankhola Upazila in Bagerhat district.

The forest guards of the Smart Team filed a case against the arrested fishermen under the Forest Act and handed them over to the Kachikhali Forest Patrol Outpost to be sent to the Bagerhat court.

A source related to the forest, who did not want to be named, said that Liton Matubbar has been managing the forest guards of the Kachikhali Sanctuary Center and has been fishing in the banned Dudhraj Canal for a long time.

On July 21, the forest guards of the Special Team of the Sharankhola Range seized 28 char nets owned by Liton Matubbar from the Kachikhali Site Canal based on secret information.

The reliable source said that the forest guards of the Kachikhali Forest Patrol Outpost are allowing various fishermen, including Liton Matubbar, to fish in the sanctuary’s prohibited canal in exchange for a large sum of money.

The Divisional Forest Officer (DFO) of the Eastern Sundarbans Forest Division, Bagerhat, Md. Rezaul Karim Chowdhury, said that a case has been filed against four fishermen, including Liton Matubbar, who were arrested for illegally fishing in the prohibited canal of Kachikhali, and the accused were produced before the Bagerhat court on Saturday afternoon, the DFO said.