Hilsa, Bengal’s beloved fish, is vanishing. Once a staple of festivals, feasts, and everyday meals, the Hilsa—locally known as ‘ilish’—is now becoming harder to find, pushing traditional fishing communities to the edge.
In Bengal, Hilsa is not just a delicacy. It holds cultural, culinary, and even religious significance. It’s offered to Goddess Durga during Durga Puja, and its rich taste has inspired proverbs comparing it to nectar. Hilsa is also believed to have medicinal benefits—soothing the stomach, relieving bloating, and even treating phlegmatic conditions. But this shimmering silver fish, once found in rivers across the country, is now in trouble—especially in the Hooghly–Bhagirathi river system of West Bengal.
The Hilsa, a fish that lives in the ocean and visits the river for laying eggs
The fish lives most of its life in the ocean but moves towards the estuary and where the rivers of India and Bangladesh meet the Bay of Bengal to lay eggs during the rainy season. The Hilsa can covers as much as 70.8 km in one day. A large part of the shoal travels upstream in the Padma and the Ganga. Culinary lore has it that the fish that travel the farthest upstream have the best combination of the flavours of the sea and the river.
Hilsa fishery exists with two distinguished peaks in monsoon and winter in the Hooghly-Bhagirathi linkage of the Ganga River system. The northern Bay of Bengal and its associated river systems contribute to 90 percent of the hilsa catch in the country. Hilsa accounts for 12.5 percent of the fish catch in West Bengal in India.
This migratory marvel is facing roadblocks
However, a slow decline in the Hilsa catch has been reported in the Hooghly–Bhagirathi river system in recent years informs a study titled ‘Hilsa fisheries in India: A socioeconomic analysis of fishers in the deltaic Ganga region of the river Hooghly’ published in Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems. The study authored by Chakraborty H, DebRoy P, Kunui A, Nandy SK, Jana C, Sahoo AK and Das BK, explores the reasons for this decline in the Hilsa in West Bengal and its impact on the fisherfolk in the region.
What’s causing this decline
The Farakka Barrage, operational since 1975, has been a major barrier for Hilsa migration. Its navigation lock disrupted the natural westward movement of the fish upstream, altering water flow and salinity. Today, Hilsa has practically disappeared from the stretches above Farakka, thriving only in downstream areas.
Before such infrastructure projects, Hilsa could be found in several Indian rivers—like the Mahanadi, Brahmaputra, Narmada, Tapti, and Godavari—and even reservoirs like Ukai. That’s no longer the case, as they have gradually disappeared.
Silt build-up in the estuary mouths of the Hooghly–Bhagirathi system blocks fish entry. Increased water extraction, industrial pollution, and urban waste also degrade river quality, harming breeding and feeding zones.
Overfishing, especially of juvenile Hilsa, is rampant. Fisherfolk often ignore rules about net mesh size, catching young fish before they can breed. Brood fish (mature, breeding-age fish) are also targeted. The lack of compliance, weak enforcement, and poor design of fish passes at barrages have only worsened the situation. Climate change, rising water temperatures, and erratic monsoons add to the crisis.
Measures followed by the state government to protect Hilsa fisheries
Hilsa fisheries of West Bengal in India are under the jurisdiction of the state government of West Bengal. The state government regulates mesh size in the use of gill nets to 90–110 mm while placing a ban on monofilament gill nets below 90 mm mesh size and other nets with mesh size below 40 mm. It bans hilsa fishing for 10 days in the month of September or October, imposes a fishing ban on all kinds of fish in the state from 15 April to 15 June, and has initiated mass awareness campaigns for hilsa conservation from 2010 onwards.
Harvesting, transporting, marketing, and selling Hilsa with less than the body size of 23 cm from February to April every year is banned in West Bengal to take care of the juvenile fish. Fishing of Hilsa is prohibited within 5 sq. km of the Farakka barrage around the year to facilitate fish spawning in the area. The market value of Hilsa is increasing rapidly due to low availability because of overfishing in West Bengal.
How are these changes affecting the fishing community in the state?
The study examines the state of the fishing community in the upper to lower stretch of the Hooghly district by talking to four hundred and two fishermen from four sites, namely Farakka in Murshidabad, Hooghly, North 24 Parganas, and South 24 Parganas.
The study finds that:
Fisherfolk are shifting livelihoods
With Hilsa catches falling, fishers have been forced to diversify.
Many lack government support
Most fishers do not have official ID cards, which means they miss out on government subsidies and schemes. Without formal recognition, they remain invisible in policymaking.
Traditional fishing methods are still in use
Mechanisation is creeping in, especially in the nearshore waters of the northern Bay of Bengal and upper river stretches, but most operations remain artisanal.
Downstream fishers earn more
While some fishers in Hooghly are making higher profits from non-Hilsa species, 40 percent of fishers in Farakka and South 24 Parganas now rely on non-fishery work.
Hilsa alone is no longer enough
Though Hilsa remains a culturally and economically valuable species, the study found that relying solely on it is no longer sustainable. Traditional livelihoods persist but must now be supported by other income streams—either from alternative fish species or entirely different jobs.
Construction of dams and barrages on rivers needs a rethink at the policy level
The impact of the Farakka Barrage on Hilsa fishing is obvious, and it has led to a remarkable decline in Hilsa catch in the upper stretches of the Ganga. This has created pressure on the fisheries. Recent initiatives have been taken to increase the Hilsa population upstream of the Farakka Barrage. However, the fact that Hilsa was once available in the different river systems of the country and then suffered huge setbacks owing to the construction of dams and barrages needs to be considered in the management and policy decisions for the sustenance and development of Hilsa fisheries in the future, warn the authors.
Better regulation and support for fishers to conserve Hilsa fisheries is crucial
The management and conservation rules in the state pertaining to Hilsa fisheries policies need to be strictly implemented and monitored, and more investments need to be channelled into the Hilsa fisheries of the northern Bay of Bengal region, argues the study. Investments must be directed toward:
Given the high demand for Hilsa across eastern and northeastern India, strengthening Hilsa fisheries can also be an economic win. Hilsa is more than just a fish in Bengal—it’s a part of the region’s soul. But for the communities that rely on it, survival is getting harder with each passing season. Protecting the Hilsa and supporting the fishers who bring it to our plates is not just a cultural necessity—it’s an economic and ecological imperative.