From June to August, a three-month period during the breeding season, the Sundarbans mangrove forest imposes a strict ban on the extraction of all forest resources, including fish, crabs, honey, golpata, and garan wood. To allow the forest to recover, tourism activities, including visitor access, are also prohibited during this time. The forest remains eerily quiet, with only forest guards and law enforcement personnel permitted to be present. Legally, no forest workers are allowed to stay in the forest during this period.However, a group of unscrupulous individuals exploit this time to engage in illegal activities within the Sundarbans. Posing as fishermen or forest workers, these individuals use prohibited nets and apply pesticides to catch fish in the forest’s internal canals and rivers. Others venture deep into the forest, illegally catching shrimp and other fish species, drying them on mats placed on tree platforms over fires fueled by cut wood to produce dried fish (locally known as shutki). These dried fish are later packed into sacks and smuggled via river routes to various cities for sale.
According to the Forest Department, in July alone, forest officials dismantled and burned several shutki-making platforms set up by these illegal groups. On July 23, forest guards in the Chandpai Range of East Sundarbans discovered a shutki processing site in the Shiala Khal area of Charaputia’s jungle, seizing two sacks of dried fish, three boats, and three drums while destroying the site. On July 15, the Smart Team-1 of Chandpai Range demolished four shutki platforms in the Charaputia area and confiscated 20 sacks of dried fish. On July 14, the Sharankhola Range’s Smart Patrolling Team destroyed a shutki drying structure in the Bara Kechua Khal area of Supati Station. On July 12, authorities seized 18 sacks of dried fish and two boats at the mouth of Bara Dabur Khal in Harbaria. Several individuals were detained in connection with these operations.
Local fishermen, speaking anonymously, revealed that during high tide, canals are blocked with fine-meshed bheshali nets to trap fish. As the tide recedes, pesticides are poured into the traps, causing shrimp to float to the surface within minutes for easy collection. Trees like sundari, poshur, and gewa are cut to create clearings where platforms are constructed. Shrimp and other fish are spread on mats atop these platforms, with fires lit below using the felled wood. The heat dries the pesticide-tainted fish into shutki.
Interviews with fishermen from villages near the forest indicate that shrimp caught using pesticides are not brought directly to local markets or sold openly. Instead, they are dried in the forest’s interior and smuggled out. Sundari wood is preferred for the fires as it gives the shutki a reddish hue, fetching higher prices in the market. Previously, shutki factories operated in nearby areas like Koyra, but joint operations by the Forest Department and local administration destroyed at least 30 such factories over recent years, pushing the trade deeper into the forest. Sources also reveal that this shutki is smuggled not only to various parts of Bangladesh but also to India via the Angtihara route, using cargo and lighter vessels as covert transport.
Fishermen further disclosed that during the banned breeding season, only criminals secretly enter the forest’s depths, using pesticides to catch shrimp. Since this catch cannot be sold in local markets, it is processed into shutki in the forest and smuggled to cities. Allegedly, some corrupt Forest Department officials are complicit, receiving fixed monthly payments from these groups.
Dr. Md. Shahin, the Mongla Upazila Health Officer, warned that consuming fish caught with pesticides not only kills wildlife but also poses health risks to humans, leading to various diseases due to toxin contamination.
Deepak Chandra Das, Assistant Conservator of Forests for the Chandpai Range, stated that some unscrupulous fishermen use pesticides to catch shrimp in the forest’s depths and dry them into shutki using felled trees. Md. Rezaul Karim Chowdhury, Divisional Forest Officer of East Sundarbans, added, “This closed season, we are not letting offenders operate freely. We are destroying more shutki platforms. However, the use of pesticides to catch shrimp and the construction of platforms in the deep forest are highly concerning. This damages both the forest and its biodiversity. Offenders flee upon hearing patrol boats, and we face manpower shortages, but we are taking strict measures to curb these illegal activities.”
