Syed Shemul Parvez :
The leather of sacrificial animals have started coming to the capital from Dhaka and surrounding districts. This leather is being brought to the posta tannery of the city.
But, the sellers are leaving the leather on the roads as they have not been able to sell it at a fair price. As a result, a stink is spreading around the posta area of Lalbagh and destroying environment thereat and beyond.
As soon as I reached Lalbagh-Chawkbazar area, bad smell of rotten skin came to my nose.
Although the supply of leather was higher this time than last year, goat skin and cow skin could not be sold.
As a result, those who
brought goat skins from far away for sale could not sell them and left them on the different streets of the capital.
On the other hand, no trader has come to the posta ternary this year to buy cow skins.
This happened for the first time. Consequently, traders kept the scalp separate from the original skin for sale, but left it on the street as they could not sell it.
As a result, the road to Posta is now covered with goat and cow skin.
On Friday (July 23) morning, vehicles couldn’t move properly on the roads due to flood of unsold skins. Even walking was not possible on foot.
The locals ignoring stink and hindrance are passing through it. Talking to traders, it is learned that the price of leather is a bit higher this year as compared with last year. They have bought the skin for 100 to 150 taka more than last year.
It is understood that this year, traders have bought cow skins at a maximum of Taka 700 and a minimum of Taka 100.
Besides, Tk 300 is being added to it for Applying salt on this skin.
After that these will be stored in the posta yard for a few days or a month. Then the traders will sell it to the tannery owners by feet. According to the Ministry of Fisheries and Livestock, more than one crore animals were sacrificed in Bangladesh last year due to corona infection, but more than one crore and six lakh animals were sacrificed during the previous year.
According to the Tanners Association, about 22 crore square feet of leather are found in Bangladesh every year. Of these, 64.83 per cent are cow skins, 31.82 per cent are goat skins, 2.25 per cent are buffalo skins and 1.2 per cent are sheep skins.
According to the decision of the Ministry of Commerce, the price of salted cow skin has been fixed at Tk 40 to 45 per square foot in Dhaka this year. Outside Dhaka, the price has been fixed at Tk 33 to 37.
Meanwhile, seasonal traders and tannery owners are fearing that the collection of raw hides will be less this time than last year due to corona and floods.
