Pahela Baisakh in Dhaka at the Suhrawardi Udyan fare with Hilsa and panta bhat. A writer-poet, now living in Canada, made the claim sometime back that it was he and his group of friends who started the fad.

Hilsa, our national fish, has become an inseparable part of Pahela Baishakh (Bangla New Year) celebrations, but experts say the practice has no roots in a thousand years of Bengali tradition.

The price of hilsa has shot up just a week ahead of Pahela Baishakh because of supply shortfall triggered by a ban on catching the fish in some certain parts in the rivers.

Banned in the country for its consequences, gill nets are still aplenty in Bangladesh.

THOUGH the government amended the Protection and Conservation of Fish Act (1950) in the year 2002 to ban the manufacture and