On a muddy alluvial land by the intertidal rivers Shibsa and Sutarkhali, several unmechanized traditional river boats, known as country boats, are docked, despite it being a weekday in mid-June. This is because the boat operators — the fishers of the Sundarbans — have been prohibited from fishing in the creeks and canals of the mangrove forest. This particular village, named Kalabagi Jhulanta Para, home to around 300 fisher families in the Dacope subdistrict of Khulna, was almost devastated when the tropical cyclone Remal hit Bangladesh’s southwest coast on May 26. Five days later, the forest department imposed a 91-day ban on fishing in the Sundarbans to conserve forest resources. The cyclone left families here destitute. Without any relief aid from the government, the marginalized fishers have rebuilt their fragile huts with high-interest loans, which eventually seem to stand like feathers against gusts. “I eke out [a living] on fishing. As I couldn’t do it, my wallet was empty. I had to take loans to afford food and to rebuild my shelter because these were crucial for my pregnant wife, children and aged parents,” says an unemployed 26-year-old fisherman, Azizul Islam, while caring for his newborn daughter on his lap. He has not yet paid the medical bills and fees of the village doctor who assisted his wife in childbirth on June 9. Azizul says he could have managed the money if he had been allowed to do his job. For the past couple of years, fishers in the Sundarbans…This article was originally published on Mongabay
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