Local fishermen are catching tonnes of hilsa (also known as ilish) fish in the Brahmaputra near Tilapara, south of Chandardinga Hill, beside Chapar, in Dhubri district. This is the breeding season for the hilsas and catching hilsa is banned in neighbouring Bangladesh during this season. It is the national fish of Bangladesh. It is also popular in India, especially in West Bengal, Odisha, Tripura, Assam, southern Gujarat and Mizoram. It is also exported globally. According to sources in the Fisheries Department, the Department has requested the Deputy Commissioners (DCs) concerned to take steps locally to prevent the practice of catching hilsa fish during this breeding season. The District Fisheries Development Officers have also been asked to take up the matter in due earnest with their respective DCs. The hilsa is a brackish fish. The confluence of the Brahmaputra with the Bay of Bengal, where water is a mixture of saline and fresh water, is its habitat. At an interval of two to three years, fishes of this species enter the Assam part of the Brahmaputra for breeding purpose. This time also, schools of the fishes of this species have entered the Assam part of the Brahmaputra for the purpose and a huge portion of them has been caught by the local fishermen in the above area, which is an ideal ground for breeding. Though as per the provisions of the Assam Fisheries Act, the Fisheries Department can prohibit catching of other species of fish between April 1 and July 15, this piece of legislation has no provision for such steps in case of the hilsa, the sources said. The sources also maintained that there has been a slump in such activities in the past couple of days. In this respect, it may be mentioned here that the Government of the neighbouring Bangladesh has banned catching, transportation, storing and selling of hilsa during this breeding season and it has been dealing any violation of this order with a firm hand. It is also trying to generate awareness among the common people on the need to give up the practice of catching hilsa during this season. The fish contributes about 12 per cent of the total fish production and about 1 per cent of the gross domestic product (GDP) in Bangladesh.