Prohibited fish piracy in Daltonganj! Fish pirate absconding

Pioneer News Service
Daltonganj

Fish piracy in Daltonganj. It did happen on June 2. However the fish pirate continues to be evading arrest since the institution of the criminal case against him and four others said the police 

A man identified as Dhananjay Kumar Gupta and four others looted 6 quintal of prohibited Thai Mangur fish in Daltonganj.

The prohibited Thai Mangur fish was coming from Odisha to Bihar via Daltonganj. Local town police said Gupta and his group decamped with the banned Thai Mangur fish and the van with which the fish was being transported.

Police could trace the prohibited Thai Mangur fish and the looted van. As the fish was a banned one in Jharkhand, it was buried. The task of burying the fish was given to the district fishery officer Md Qamruzzaman who as he told this correspondent, did it in full protocol for destroying such health hazard thing.

Gupta is still at large said the local town police. He is said to be a habitual fish pirate also reminded the police officer. “The Thai Mangur fish was first retrieved from the concrete water tub from the Paton block limits and taken down to a government plot of land at Jore under the Sadar block limits in Daltonganj where with the help of the JCB machine a fish grave 3 feet deep and 4 feet long was dug up in which the banned fish was buried late June 3 evening” reiterated the fishery officer.

The burial had considerable amount of salt for faster decomposition of the banned fish. The banned Thai Mangur fish was buried deep beyond the reach of dog, jackal and hyena etc.

Asked if all the 6 quintal of prohibited Thai Mangur fish was dead or alive before its burial, fishery officer said “Many were alive. But it didn’t matter anything. The live ones and the dead ones both went down the earth.”   Again asked as to why it was so silent a burial that media could know about it so late police said “We were after the fish thief. The fish thief is evading arrest. It’s for his nabbing that the fish matter was left unpublicized”.

The driver of the fish van Kartik Nayak and his labour Masuk had lodged the complaint of the loot of the banned Thai Mangur fish with the town police station on June 2. Police registered this case under section of dacoity besides a couple of more sections of the BNS.

This fish is a high human health risk because of metal lead in its flesh said fish expert. It’s a carnivorous fish.

The Thai Mangur fish is also a serious environmental hazard to aquatic biodiversity.Jharkhand government has banned its farming, breeding, sale and consumption. However Desi Mangur fish is Jharkhand’s state fish.