Officials said the campaign yielded results as fisheries department data showed an increase in its catch in the last fiscal at 391,000 tonnes.
From 1983 to 1999, the average catch of hilsa was 211,000 tonnes per year, according to official data.
But since early 1980s its availability continued to decline in inland rivers which experts said was caused by morphological changes, pollution and human intervention.
Hilsa, known as ‘ilish' in Bengali parlance, is mainly a sea species but prefers to lay its eggs in rivers due to absence of salinity and lesser current.
The roaming ground of hilsa ranges from Persian Gulf to Gulf of China via Bay of Bengal but 60 per cent of it are caught in major Bangladeshi rivers.
