Fishermen in Nadia’s Santipur caught a gigantic baghair (Bagarius bagarius) or dwarf goonch from the Hooghly on Saturday evening.
Also known as the devil catfish, the species is usually available downstream the Padma and elsewhere in south Asia and is rarely seen in Bengal. The fish weighed around 30 kilos and was sold in a wholesale market of East Burdwan’s Kalna on Sunday morning for Rs 12,000.
The huge bony fish was first spotted by fisherman Sakha Burman, a resident of Nrisinhapur of Santipur. He, with the help of other fishermen, trapped the fish.
Burman admitted that he was initially a “little scared and reluctant” to catch the fish.
“I had earlier read some news reports of attacks on men by the baghair fish. So, I was a little hesitant about attempting to catch one. But this fish appeared to be tired and posed no threat,” the fisherman told the media. “The Bagarius bagarius is rarely seen in Bengal. This particular fish could have entered the Hooghly through branches (tributaries) of the Padma,” an official of the state forest department said.
The fish is found in big rivers. The larger variant of the baghair is said to have attacked several people, some of them fatally, in the Mahakali river on Nepal’s western border with India.