Ranishankail (Thakurgaon) Correspondent:
There are more than 3,000 ponds in Ranishankail Upazila where fish are commercially raised. It has been reported from various areas that chicken droppings (litter) are being used directly as fish food in about 50 percent of the ponds. In this region, chicken droppings are being used directly from farms without proper processing. As a result, the pond water is being polluted and foul smelling due to its use for fish farming, which is being left carelessly on the roadside and on the banks of ponds, making public life miserable.
It is known on the ground that chicken droppings and related waste materials from various farms, which the locals call litter, are being widely used in almost all ponds in Gramganj, including Nekmorad-Katihar Highway, Nekmorad-Check Post Road, Mirdangi-Gazirhat and Chamardighi Roads.
Locals said that the dumping of these poultry droppings and waste on the side of the road has created serious inconvenience for pedestrians, but no one sees it. Due to the use of chicken litter, the common people walking on the road, including school students, are suffering from the stench. Some villagers are silently enduring this due to fear that fish farmers are influential. When they talk about this, they are being threatened in various ways. Meanwhile, the water has become unusable due to the repeated use of poultry droppings and waste in the same pond day after day. Some people who do not want to be named allege that the administration has played a silent role despite knowing about this.
The Agriculture Department says that organic fertilizer can be made by processing chicken droppings. It is possible to get about 50 kg of TSP-rich organic fertilizer from 100 kg of droppings by burying it in the ground for about 4 months. Which can be used in fish farming in ponds.
The Health Department says that chicken food contains various types of antibiotics and chemicals. Chicken feces do not easily get destroyed when they enter the fish’s body. Therefore, if they enter the human body through fish, there is a possibility of various diseases including cancer. For this reason, the government has banned the use of chicken feces as fish food. In this regard, Upazila Fisheries Officer (Acting) Abdul Jalil said, I have heard that fish farmers are using chicken feces and related waste materials. In various seminars, trainings and yard meetings, I myself have made fish farmers aware in various ways not to use these. Still, they are not stopping. I have spoken to UNO sir and action will be taken against them.