Remal causes losses in fishing and animal husbandry worth over DKK 900

An official report on Wednesday said that severe cyclonic storm ‘Remal’ has caused huge economic losses of over Tk 900 crore in the fisheries and animal husbandry sectors across the country.

In the latest report prepared by the Department of Fisheries and Livestock Sector, a huge economic loss of Tk 906.63 crore was caused to the fisheries and livestock sector due to the devastating cyclone ‘Remal’ which initially hit most of the country’s coastal districts this week.

As a result of the strong cyclone, 15 people died and approximately 8,00,000 inhabitants of coastal areas were forced to leave their homes and seek shelter, according to BSS.

Wind speeds at the time of the main impact were between 90 and 120 kilometers per hour and the tide reached 3 feet, which broke the embankment and flooded a wide area of ​​the coast, causing damage to houses, crops, and livestock, according to the Ministry of Disaster Management.

According to the fisheries department, severe cyclonic storm Remal caused a financial loss of Tk 858 crore or Tk 67 lakh to the fisheries sector, which includes inundation of ponds, fences, hatcheries, fishing grounds, shrimp, fish chips, and crabs due to heavy rainfall, flooding and tides in eighty-eight upazilas in sixteen coastal districts under Khulna, Barisal, Chattogram and Dhaka divisions.

The cyclone affected fisheries weighing over 20,523 tonnes, prawns weighing over 7,943 tonnes, fish chips weighing over 1,627 tonnes, crabs or kuchia weighing over 253 tonnes and post larvae (PL) weighing over 590 lakh in eighteen districts under Khulna, Barisal and Chattogram and Dhaka divisions.

Infrastructure losses in the fisheries sector amounted to over Tk 61.59 crore in 468 unions comprising eighty-eight upazilas under four divisions, the report said.

Estimated fishing losses were over Tk 330.76 crore, shrimp over Tk 339.29 crore, fish chips over Tk 98.62 crore, crab or kuchia over Tk 22.09 crore and larvae over Tk 14.73 crore. The cyclone affected 663 trawlers and boats at a cost of Tk 2.67 crore and damaged fishing nets worth over Tk 1.73 crore.

It was calculated that division wise economic loss, financial loss of fisheries sector in Khulna district was over Tk 722 crore, over Tk 98.44 crore in Barishal district, over Tk 18.72 crore in Chattogram district and financial loss was over Tk 19.33 crore Tk in Dhaka district – the report was displayed.

Apart from this, the estimated loss in the livestock and poultry sector was Tk 47 crore (97 lakh), which includes damage to livestock farms, live cattle and poultry farms in the three coastal districts of Barishal, Khulna and Chattogram.