When serious issues like the February election and law and order are drawing the nation's attention, some extraordinary happenings of lighter vein are quietly doing their rounds. One such thing happened away from the land but within the country's territorial limit in the Bay of Bengal. Yes, no one has ever heard, seen or imagined anything of this order before. The pictorial report carried in the newspapers did not lie and left people wonder-struck.
Anything of this order happens once in millions. The king of all varieties of fishes, hilshas may be conspicuous by their absence in the country's rivers and the Bay, but on that particular day, they announced their presence quite emphatically. How? To every mortal's surprise, hilshas jumped in their hundreds on a port-bound lighterage ship carrying coal from a mother vessel in the outer anchorage. The crew caught as many hilshas as they could. But there was one smart guy who captured the episode in a video clip which naturally went viral.
The question is, what prompted the hilshas to take this unprecedented step? In the past when there was plenty of sweetwater fishes of all kinds, they sometimes jumped up to land on a boat coursing in water where a shoal was caught unguarded. But still the number of fish would not be uncountable. In this case, the same thing happened on a grand scale as the ship came upon a sprightly shoal of hilshas in the Bay. Probably the hilshas jumped in panic. As the report goes, the majority of the hilshas were broods. It might be their inexperience that they could not swim away when the ship came upon them.
The unexpected catch by the unlikely coal-carrying vessel amounted to about 110-115 kilograms. When trawlers mostly return empty handed, this event shows that hilshas are not out of stock in the Bay of Bengal. Maybe, the adult hilshas have become smarter not to be ensnared in fishemen's nets. In the peak season, there was only one report of a trawler coming back with a bevy of hilshas weighing around 700-800 kilos.
Have the hilshas chosen a different route further than the zone where the trawlers usually operate? Not unlikely. The climate change has forced many species to adapt to strange weather and ecosystem. If hilshas have done so, there is nothing to be surprised. From the point of hilsha lovers, this may be frustrating because prices of this delicacy is beyond the purchasing power of most people. But from the survival instinct of hilshas, it is quite natural that they made no compromise on their security.
Human beings are an omnivorous species. The majority of them view a fish, an animal or plant as eatables meaning the value of any other species is measured usually in terms of food. Hardly do people think that the flora and fauna also reserve the right to life and without those special gifts, their survival would be in jeopardy.
The dearth of hilshas or any other species of fish, bird or animal is a sign of imbalance in the living world. People may feel exasperated with the unavailability of hilshas or any other species they took as a guarantee for their dishes. The attitude is particularly dangerous when they think that all other species are created either to serve them or as dishes on the dining table.
Religious sermons more often than not has impressed this distorted view on the common people's mind and thought process. The carnivore has thus turned an omnivore. Since no species including the humans or for that matter any living organism that is born cannot avoid mortality, the attitude of lordship is unacceptable. For ecological balance, every species has a role to play. So humans have no right to kill indiscriminately any species.
The hilshas may have acted foolishly in this case, but they can be wiser enough as well. Human infringement in their territory may have forced them to move away from the dangerous zone. The broods may be adventurous enough to discover areas avoided by their adult or senior members. When they act foolishly, they get caught to the delight of the omnivores.
Well, survivability of every species is at stake because of the heating of the planet. Weather is behaving capriciously so much so that snow or frost gathers in the desert and colder countries writhe in extreme heat. The truth is that no species other than humans are responsible for the global warming. Huge cluster of ice gets dislocated from the pristine permafrost in the Antarctica and starts its uncertain journey. Yet the world leaders cannot agree on reducing the use of fossil fuels.
This is a crucial time and the USA has elected a man their president who does not believe in scientific data experts have produced to show how the fossil fuels are taking a heavy toll on the environment and ecology. If the US government turns its back to the climate summit, there is no chance of getting the priority right at any such global get-together. The world is dangerously heading for a disaster of cataclysmic proportion. Hilsha fares only as a small but valuable link to the diverse chain completing the vast canvas of existentialism.
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