125kg fish baffles wildlife lovers in Uttarakhand
An unusually big devil catfish, estimated to be 125kg, from Ramganga river, caught by villagers near Corbett national park in Almora district has baffled wildlife lovers as normal size of this species in Himalayan rivers is about 60-70 kilogram.
Wildlife experts were not able to recall the last time such a big fish was caught from a Himalayan river.
“The weight of the fish is unusual,” said JA Johnson, a fisheries expert at Wildlife Institute of India (WII). “The Goonch (Bagarius bagrius), popular name of the fish locally, lives in large pools and is carnivore. During monsoon, it migrates to upstream for spawning”.
The catch has, however, landed villagers in trouble as four of them have been booked for illegal fishing during monsoon, a breeding season for fish.
Almora’s Divisional forest officer SR Prajapati said, an FIR has been filed with the Revenue Police post against the group of people that caught the fish.
“The fish could not be weighed as the villagers have eaten it. Based on people’s accounts and the video, we think it will be the range of 120-125kg. We have only identified 4 people — Ganesh
Ram, Jeet Ram, Suresh Ram and Lali Ram — from the video. They are absconding,” he told HT.
The photos and videos of the catch uploaded on social
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