On February 15, 2025, the women fisher-folk group leaders organized Sundarbans Day in Mongla. Participants came from 15 groups. The slogan was, “Save the mangrove, save the Sundarbans”. They organized a rally first where group members and other communities’ members joined. Later a gathering for discussion was organized where different segment of the communities were attended.
One of the key speaker was Sharif Jamil, General Secretary of the Water Keeper Alliance and other leaders. Speakers and group members demanded protection of the Sundarbans mangrove, critical habitats and unregulated fishing in the canals and rivers within the forest areas.
Members agreed `we must fight together, no one should protest alone, because bad people have more power’. They added `we depend on the Sundarbans for our livelihood, none of us will cut the tree of Sundarbans, and we will not harm them’. It was frequently discussed that cutting down its trees in the Sundarbans is a punishable crime, so, no one will take the law into their own hands.
Federation leader Halima Begum said `Sundarbans protect us from various natural calamities like our mother, we have to protect these Sundarbans’.
