Indian Collecting Expedition - Ichamati River near Calcutta
by Ravi Chandran
www.indianaquariumhobbyist.com
Aquarticles
When Andrew Arunava Rao offered to take me fishing on the Ichamati River
while on a recent trip to Calcutta, I jumped at the offer. Andrew is an author on Native
Indian fish and has been in this hobby for several years and has had a great impact on it,
in the last few decades with his business as well.
It was a cold Christmas day eve when we set off on our trip after a leisurely breakfast.
After two hours of travel on roads that snaked through market towns selling cauliflowers
and other vegetables of enormous size, we reached a small village close to DuttaPhulia on
the banks of the Ichamati river not very far from the Bangladesh border.
It was late afternoon and though we refused lunch we were given a lot of sweets to eat and
once done we decided to cast our nets. The river at this point was only approximately 20
feet wide and was much lower than the banks. The banks had a lot of bamboo clumps and
little spaces where the fisherman grew rice as well. I spotted a few vallesneria in the
waters and much of the top was choked with water hyacinth. The fisherman had prevented
them from spreading by cordoning them of with bamboo poles. I did not test for PH but with
the amount of leaf litter in the water; my assumption was that the water must have been
soft. It was very muddy and we were told that in some spots, the river in this area was
almost 20 feet deep.
On the way saw one of the nets that the fishermen used where they scoop the fish out -
A suspended net
(in background) used by local fisherman
Local fisherman about to fish
We selected our spot and the fishermen, who were on a boat similar to ours – they got
into the water and cast the net in a semicircle from the bank and slowly began to close
it. While closing it they began to get a nearby duck seriously alarmed! For awhile the
bird didn’t understand what this net was doing! After trying to swim over the net, it
just flew away!
In this picture you
can see mustard crops being cultivated on the banks.
Also observe the level of water in the banks in the rainy season.
Sadly we had a disappointing catch. Andrew told us that while many varieties including Ctenops
nobilis was common here, of late, due to pollution in the Bangladesh waters, catches
have declined. We caught a few Colisa lalia, Puntius conchonius (the wild
variety) –
Puntius Conchonius
(Rosy barb, wild variety)
We caught A LOT of crabs that the fishermen wanted to take back for dinner!! Here is
Andrew in the photo below trying to scare me with one!
Crabs for
dinner!
We also caught
one Mystus bleekeri.
And finally a lot of Salmostoma Phulo which I didn’t take pictures of…
It was going to take a lot of time to cast the nets again so we decided against it. Some
of the fishermen had saved a few of their catch earlier during the day and I was able to
take pictures of other fish in the river –
Emerald Puffer (Tetraodon
cutcutia)
Nandus
nandus.
Notopterus
notopterus
Peacock Eel (Macrognathus aral)
Channa gachua
Channa marulius
Macrobrachium sp. “Ivory”
A catfish (Bagarius yarelli)
It was close to dusk by now and we had to head back to Kolkatta. One the way back Andrew
regaled me with stories from his many fishing trips in remote parts of India and that is
another story!
Editor's note: For other Indian
collecting expeditions, see:
Collecting Fish in India
(Ubbalmadugu Kona)
Etroplus canarensis - The Search for
the Rarest Indian Cichlid
Collecting Tropical Fish in India
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