A bright and colourful fish with long fins and a large mouth, coveted by aquarists abroad but recently accorded protection under India’s wildlife laws, has whipped up a controversy.
The Barca snakehead (Channa barca) — a rare and ornamental species of snakehead endemic to the upper Brahmaputra river basin in northeastern India and Bangladesh — is in great demand in the international market, especially in Southeast Asia. The combination of high demand and limited supply makes the species vulnerable to illegal trade. A single fish can fetch more than ₹1 lakh on the international market.
Over the past year, a crackdown on the illegal export of Channa barca has pitted exporters against government agencies. Exporters allege their consignments are being delayed or wrongfully detained due to a lack of coordination among government agencies.
Consignments of ornamental fish are being seized indiscriminately at the airport, exporters allege, merely on suspicion — and on at least one occasion, after they had already been cleared for loading onto a flight.
In at least one case, detailed examination revealed that the seized species were not Channa barca at all. This newspaper has accessed the documents produced in court. Exporters allege there have been more such admissions by government agencies. At least three people were arrested in July this year. All three have since been granted bail.
“We are not criminals. Most of us would not break the law. Even if someone tries to export Channa barca, the agencies are responsible for taking legal action. But the protection on Channa barca does not give the agencies the right to harass all exporters. We have suffered huge losses and loss of goodwill,” said an exporter who has been in the trade for decades and owns a fish farm on the southwestern fringes of Calcutta.
Snakehead fish (family Channidae) are elongated, air-breathing freshwater fish native to Asia, known for their long dorsal fins, large mouths, and predatory behaviour. They can survive short distances out of water. There are over 30 species in this group, including those that are part of the Bengali palate, like the snakehead murrel (Channa striata) or shol.
The Channa barca was accorded Schedule II status under the Wildlife Protection Act through an amendment in 2022, which came into effect on April 1, 2023. The protection means trading in the species is illegal and can lead to up to a three-year jail term, forest officials said.
The first year was spent on awareness campaigns, said sources in the Wildlife Crime Control Bureau (WCCB). The crackdown began in 2024, they said.
How to identify
The main problem stems from the alleged lack of resources among government agencies — the state forest department and Wildlife Crime Control Bureau — to identify Channa barca at the airport.
Based on intelligence received, at least two consignments were recently seized before being loaded onto cargo planes at Calcutta airport. But the officials deployed at the airport could not identify the species.
In most cases, samples from the consignments had to be taken to the WCCB’s Nizam Palace office. The bureau then sent the specimens to the Calcutta-headquartered Zoological Survey of India (ZSI), the country’s oldest taxonomical research organisation. A clearance from the ZSI is needed for the consignment to be shipped.
Customs sources said their officials are not experts in identifying Channa barca. “There is a need for clearance from the Wildlife Crime Control Bureau. The bureau has an office at Calcutta airport but no personnel are deployed there,” airport customs sources said. “The samples have to be taken to the bureau’s office at Nizam Palace. The bureau has been requested to deploy people at Calcutta airport, but they said there is a shortage of manpower.”
Much time is lost in procedural hassles since multiple agencies are involved. While the actual identification might take 10 minutes, the entire process — from collecting a sample from a consignment to getting clearance or denial to export — often takes more than 48 hours.
“A morphological identification guideline is in place. The species can be identified by their dorsal and pectoral fin count and their colour. But the ornamental fish that are exported are usually juveniles. The fins are not developed in them. The colour is also different from adults. Exporters are sending a couple of Channa barca fingerlings along with 40-odd other Channa species in the same consignment. In such a situation, it is very difficult to tell which one is Channa barca,” said a source in the WCCB.
The ZSI conducts training sessions for foresters and other law enforcement agencies every year. But it is easier said than done. “The species look different when alive in their natural habitat, when preserved, in pictures, or when dead. Only an expert can tell the difference,” a zoologist said.
Dhriti Banerjee, director of ZSI, told this newspaper: “If the sample comes to us on time, we immediately identify and send back the report.”
But it is not feasible to depute a resource at the airport all the time because no one knows when a seizure will happen, officials said.
Mounting losses
Ornamental fish are high-value and perishable. The fish need to be kept in temperature-controlled water. A single consignment is often worth upwards of ₹5 lakh. A significant share of the trade passes through Calcutta airport, traders said.
“Fish have perished, and orders have been routinely stalled, even cancelled. There is an atmosphere of fear. For the past three months or so, the export of ornamental fish has been virtually stalled because of the so-called crackdown on Channa barca. We bring revenue into the country. We are not smugglers,” said a leading exporter based in North 24 Parganas.
A veteran Calcutta-based exporter who spent time in jail in July told this newspaper: “The government has every right to search samples. Those smuggling Channa barca out of the country must be punished. But in the name of a swoop, genuine businessmen should not be harassed.”
Sandeep Sundriyal, the principal chief conservator of forests and chief wildlife warden of Bengal, declined to say much on the issue, saying it was sub-judice.
“We are duty-bound to enforce the law. Legal recourse is available to everybody,” he said.