GOLAKGANJ, Oct 18 � For Ajharul Alom, that Sunday, the word extinct became synonymous with fish. Desperately looking for those small fries which are his son�s favourite, he remembered his wife�s entreaties to buy at least some puthi or kharia and he had virtually mopped up the slippery alleys of the Dhubri fish market walking up and down. But he had to return with broken hopes. Yes, there were the Andhra varieties, the huge hybrids, saps the taste. Even the Brahmaputra hilsa (ilish) had done the vanishing track. It should be mentioned that Ajharul Alom�s problem was not peculiar that Sunday. The phenomenon of fish species disappearing from the market has become so glaring that even Doordarshan news, which has little time left after smiles a footage on popular politics managed to speak about the fall in fish catch this year. But it seems that as the years pass, hilsa and many other types of fish will be come rarer.
Already at least dozen varieties have vanished from the market. According to a senior environmentalist of Dhubri town, the ones which have either become existent or are a seriously threatened are the puthi, khahbana, rou, banu, tengara, chital, gharia and bhagun. There is hardly enough pollution free water in the area; the ponds are polluted beyond imagination. Brahmaputra and Gadadhar river have became unholy rivers with much industrial effluent, and with leads of silt. Yet the fingerlings which exists in the river do not get time to grow up and breed and are caught before time. Just a decade ago, these fishes comprised 80.77 per cent of the total catch everyday. But now there has been an alarming fall in the total fish flew to the Dhubri market, which stands at half of what it was five years ago.
�The bazar is surviving only on the hybrid varieties from Andhra,� lamented Iqbal Husain, an aged fish trader of the market. Remembering the good old days, he said, �all the 35 stalls in this market would be overflowing in those days, but now you can see for yourself, not more than 30 stalls have fish to sell.�
More overpowering than the nostalgia is a sense of paranoias which engulfs one when investigates the causes. The non-availability of local fishes has been very much noticeable this year, and what it indicates is a much greater problem. Most of the fishes that have vanished are of the rice field variety, Jayanta Sarkar of Asharikandi says. They put so much pesticide for growing rice now-a-days that everything is killed, even snails and toads. And these poisons they put in the rice and vegetable fields drain off into the pond and simply wipe out the fish. Fish ulcers have been reported from all over the State. �We try to grow fish in our ponds, where even the hybrid varieties do not grow beyond a certain size and then their tails just fall off due to gangrene,� says Anowar Sheikh, a local fisherman of Gauripur area. These can not be sold in the market. But often they find their way into fish shops sold from the ubiquitous toll corner.
The problem of juveniles and brood stock being fished it also a threat. All along Asharikandi and Targhat as well as along Gauripur NH-31. Road between Dhubri and Alamgani, Juveniles of various species have been wiped out using changi jaal, phasi jaal and scion nets. In fact now-a-days even mosquito nets are being used to catch fish. But for this, the fishermen can hardly be blamed. The rivers have became so polluted that there is hardly any fish to catch. Yet, there is no alternative source of income for these people who have been in this trade for generations. The issues are serious the woes of Ajharul Alom can not be laughed away mercy reflecting the trauma of the average fish loving Assamese. They tell stories of the virtual ruin of the riverine ecology and rice fields.
