What the FISH!

Pic: Gaurav Kataria


Golden Mahseer, the world’s strongest freshwater game fish, gasps for breath

One blustery afternoon, somewhere up in the Himalayan foothills, a wiry young man, stripped down to the waist, casually holds a stick of dynamite with a lit fuse. Shielding it from the strong gust, he waits for the hissing wire to burn down to the cap before lobbing it into the river before him.

Boom! The man synchronises his dive with the bang and lunges headfirst into water. A few moments later, he resurfaces, jubilant, with a bunch of dead fish in his hands. Welcome to the world of dynamite fishing.

If you can’t bait them, blow them up, the local populace says. Or better still; electrify them with naked telephone wires hooked to high-voltage overhead tran smission lines. Sadly, this is how one of the world’s finest sport fishing locales is being wasted.

Sample this: According to the American Sportfishing Association, around 44 million people in the US go fishing every year. It generates $45 billion in retail sales with a further $125 billion impact on the nation’s economy. Tata Motors’ consolidated revenues in 2008-09 were $14 billion.

While the rest of India is crying itself hoarse over big cat conservation, the country is swiftly losing some of its most attractive game fish and angling habitats, thanks to dams, rising population and ignorance.

Thousands of anglers from all over the world visit India every year to experience sport fishing. The Prince of Wales (later Edward VIII) was one of them. Anglers come in search of the Golden Mahseer, which inhabits the rivers and perennial rivulets of sub-mountainous terrain in the Himalayas and can be found up to an altitude of 2,500 ft. But last month, when adventurer Gaurav Kataria led a team of British anglers to the Maha Kali River, stronghold of the Golden Mahseer, this is what he saw.

“Most of the deep pools in the river were empty. Villagers were using explosives to blast fish out of water,” says Kataria. The Golden Mahseer is the strongest freshwater fish in the world growing up to nine feet and weighing up to 60 kilo. But as with other forms of wildlife, it is no match for humans wielding dynamite sticks.

Illegal fishing of rare species take place around almost all Himalayan rivers with tinges of human settlement on their banks, and the Maha Kali River is no exception. The Ramganga River, which slices Corbett National Park in Uttarakhand into half, is a Mahseer paradise. Dynamite fishing by locals used to be rampant till a couple of UK-based angling enthusiasts decided to take things into their own hands.

Chris Summers, who works for Wychwood-Game, a British sport fishing equipment manufacturer, decided to set up base in Bhikyasen, a sleepy hamlet near Corbett National Park. Along with girlfriend Ellie Gibbons, a professional photographer, he has been working with the locals to conserve the Mahseer habitats. “You have to work with the local community. You have to make them understand that sport fishing can prove to be lucrative for them too,” he says.

Local boys now work to retrieve lures that cost $30 each from the river. Anglers would otherwise have abandoned them. “10 lures a day is good money for these boys,” Summers says. Supplies for the camp are also bought from local stores. It’s a win-win situation, for the river as well as the villagers.

Taking a cue from Summer’s book, Mark Everard, author and environmental scientist, is working on various models to reverse the harm done to Himalayan rivers by illegal fishing and damming. “We have to start small and repeat the pro cess along the river,” Everard says. “I am in talks with various environmental bodies in the UK on how we can help conserve the eco system of these rivers.” Everard, who was on an angling trip here, isn’t the only one madly in love with the Golden Mahseer.

Said Rudyard Kipling: “There he stood, the Mahseer off the Poonch, beside whom the Tarpon is a Herring and he who catches him can say he is a fisherman.” The Tarpon weighs 100 kilo and is considered to be one of the greatest of all saltwater game fish.

That says it all about our mighty Mahseer.