Even as Bengalis in Bangladesh rejoice at the fall of the Sheikh Hasina government, their counterparts on this side of the Padma, in West Bengal, have at least one reason to be worried about. Their favourite fish, hilsa (ilish), especially the much-cherished Padma variety, may also make an exit from their plate this Durga Puja because of the exit of Hasina, who facilitated its export as a goodwill gesture despite the curbs imposed by her government to save the species.
With Bangladesh staring at a lot of uncertainty right now because of its political crisis, it is more or less certain that Indian Bengalis won’t have access to “Padmar ilish” that arrived from August to October every year since 2020. The fish would be usually transported by road, via the Petrapole-Benapole border near Bongaon, West Bengal.
Migratory fish
Hilsa is a marine fish that travels 50–100 km upriver from the Bay of Bengal to spawn in fresh water. It can be found in the Bhagirathi-Hooghly, the Rupnarayan (Kolaghat ilish), the lower Brahmaputra, Narmada, and Godavari in India, as well as the Padma and Meghna in Bangladesh, and in Myanmar’s Irrawaddy and Pakistan’s Indus rivers.
Of these, Kolkata markets get three main varieties — the “Burmese ilish” from Myanmar, the Kolaghat variety from Rupnarayan, the “Gangar ilish” from Bhagirathi-Hooghly, and the most coveted “Padmar ilish” from Bangladesh.
Puja special
Bengal was deprived of the succulent Padmar ilish from 2012 to 2018, when Bangladesh had imposed a ban on its exports following the Teesta water-sharing dispute. Some fish were smuggled across the border and were available for astronomical prices.
In 2018, though, Hasina lifted the export ban, and 500 tonnes of hilsa arrived in Kolkata in September 2020, just before Bengal’s biggest festival of Durga Puja. Last September, too, around 3,950 metric tonnes of Padma hilsa came in from Bangladesh — just in time for Durga Puja. The price of Padmar ilish is high, though, ranging from Rs 2,200 to Rs 2,400 per kg, while the local varieties are cheaper by around Rs 1,000 to Rs 500.
But this Puja, Kolkatans may have to remain happy only with the local varieties on their plate.
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