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Published : 08 May 2026, 01:36 AM
Blackened Waters, Vanishing Vistas
Landscape stolen by rot: Floodwaters have submerged 20,000 hectares, turning vital straw stocks into putrid, black waste. Without dry fodder, the region’s 740,000 cattle face starvation.
Haor devaluation: Desperate farmers are flooding markets with cattle they can no longer feed. With rural liquidity dried up, prices have plunged, devaluing the region's top assets.
Drowning of the “Lachi”: The communal “Lachi” festivals have vanished. As the stench of decay replaces celebration, a $1.2 billion fodder industry has been washed away in the rain.
The smell arrives before the fields come into view.
Across the flooded Haors of Sunamganj, rotting straw now floats over drowned paddy fields, turning stretches of water black and leaving farmers staring at a second catastrophe after losing their harvest.
For Chhaya Rani Das of Udgal Haor in Shalla, the loss feels relentless. She manages her family’s farming with her sons and cultivated nearly 3.61 hectares of Boro paddy this season.
She managed to harvest part of the crop during the first week of Baishakh. Then came days of uninterrupted rain and hilly runoff.
The remaining paddy sank beneath water. Much of the harvested grain sprouted and spoiled before it could dry in the sun. The feed stock went sour with it.
“I have three sons and eight cattle,” she said in despair. “We harvested only 5 kear (0.6 hectares) of paddy. The other 22 kear (2.67 hectares) were destroyed. Even the straw from the harvested fields has completely rotted. Half the grain is ruined too.”
Now her greatest fear is how to feed eight cattle through the year.
Rotting Straw, Dark Water
Residents across the Haor region say they have abandoned hopes of cutting submerged paddy. Instead, they are trying to salvage partially sprouted grain and dry whatever straw remains for cattle feed, though repeated rain has made even that effort uncertain.
Many fear they may soon be forced to sell livestock.
But even that offers little relief. As crops vanish, liquidity has collapsed in rural households, pushing distressed cattle sales into already weak markets. Traders say buyers are few, as almost every family is trying to sell at once.
District Livestock Officer Md Rofiqul Islam said cattle remain central to Haor agriculture and rural survival.
“Cattle are still more important than tractors for cultivation in the Haors,” he said. “The Haor economy and farming system are sustained by livestock.”
He added that natural straw is the main feed for cattle in the region.
“Every year after Baishakh, farmers dry and process straw to store fodder for the wet season. This time, waterlogging has destroyed paddy, and the straw has also rotted and begun to emit a foul smell. There will be a severe fodder shortage this year. We have informed the authorities.”
According to the livestock department, Sunamganj has 740,000 cattle. The Haors alone produce around 22 million tonnes of straw annually, valued at nearly Tk 1.2 billion.
In normal years, farmers dry and stack straw into dome-shaped mounds called “Lachi”, a traditional system that preserves fodder for the monsoon.
The raising of a “Lachi” is often marked with informal celebrations, where neighbours gather, share meals, and help each other complete the work.
This year, those celebrations have vanished.
A Tradition Washed Away
Agriculture officials say the district has 193 Haors and wetlands where boro rice is cultivated. This year, 223,511 hectares were brought under cultivation, including 165,275 hectares in Haor areas and 58,236 hectares in non-Haor zones.
The production target stood at 14 million tonnes, valued at around Tk 500 billion.
But 20,120 hectares of cultivated land have already been submerged and damaged, though farmers and Haor movement activists say the real losses are significantly higher and underreported.
In Shalla’s Chhayar Haor and Dirai’s Udgal Haor, almost every farmer now faces the same sight: fodder piles emitting a sharp, rotting smell, and water that has turned dark where decomposed fodder has mixed with stagnant floodwater.
Even brief spells of sunlight offer little relief. Straw left out to dry collapses again when sudden rain returns.
In Dirai’s Kalyani village, farmer Sulekha Das was seen turning rotting straw in the hope of salvaging something usable. Her husband works at a rice mill, leaving her to manage both field and livestock.
She cultivated 24 kear (2.91 hectares) of land, leasing each kear at Tk 7,000 to Tk 9,000. 10 kear (1.21 hectares) were submerged and destroyed.
Of the remaining, much of the harvested paddy sprouted due to lack of sunlight. The fodder has also collapsed into decay.
She has four cattle.
“People can somehow survive by eating less,” she said quietly. “Animals cannot. How will we keep the cattle alive?”
Nearby farmers in Chakua village echoed the same concern, pointing to shrinking fodder supplies and falling livestock prices.
At Lowlarchar village, farmer Anjan Samanta said he may be forced to sell part of his five cattle despite already heavy losses.
“Half my paddy is gone. Straw is gone. Prices are falling everywhere,” he said.
In Chakua village, farmer Ranu Chandra Das said traders were offering low prices for cattle as supply surged and cash dried up in rural markets.
On Thursday, a delegation from a Haor flood mitigation platform submitted a memorandum to the district administration demanding compensation for farmers and emergency fodder support.
Activists accused local authorities of downplaying the scale of destruction, arguing that both standing and harvested crops, along with straw stocks, have been destroyed in the same wave of rainfall.
“This year, not only standing and harvested paddy but also straw has been destroyed by rain,” said activist Sukhendu Talukdar Mintu. “Local authorities are hiding the real extent of the losses.”
A Festival that Will Not Come
In better years, the end of harvest in the Haors is marked by the “Lachi” tradition, when farmers build towering straw stacks and celebrate together with food, music, and shared labour.
This year, there will be no such gathering.
With straw turning putrid in waterlogged fields and cattle at risk of starvation, farmers say survival has replaced celebration in one of Bangladesh’s most fragile agricultural landscapes.
