, Oct. 7 -- The boats are still there, the nets are still there. But the hilsa that once filled the fishing boats on the Padma River in Rajbari has largely disappeared.

Along the riverbank at Bahir Char Daulatdia in Goalanda, rows of fishing boats remain moored. Some fishermen return from the river with their meagre catch, while others sit in their boats repairing torn nets or applying tar to fishing gear under the sun.

For fisherman Shukur Ali Haldar, 75, the scene is a painful reminder of a very different Padma.

"I have been fishing in the Padma for nearly 50 years. We used to get five to seven maunds of hilsa in a single haul. Sometimes the nets were so heavy with fish that we could hardly pull them up. We would return to the ghat w...