Endangered fish

THE POPULAR fish, Palla, or Ilish as it is known in Bangladesh, is an endangered species, says a Panos Features report quoting Mirza Arshad Beg, former chairperson of the Pakistan Council for Scientific and Industrial Research.

Beg says dams have restricted the fish's movement in the last few decades and, as a consequence, its numbers have dropped considerably. He also points out that sediment deposits in the rivers have reduced drastically over the last 50 years. This, coupled with overfishing, has caused the fish, which feeds at the bottom of the river, to become endangered the fish, which feeds at the bottom of the river.