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EveryFish

River or lake, India

The Hooghly

The Ganges distributary that runs past Kolkata to the sea, India's main hilsa river and home of the bhetki and topse.

The Hooghly leaves the Ganges in West Bengal and flows about 260 km south past Kolkata to the Bay of Bengal. Its lower reaches, around Diamond Harbour and Kakdwip, are a wide estuary where fresh water meets the tide. This is India's main hilsa river and a working fishery for mullets, threadfins, croakers and catfish, which supply the fish markets of Kolkata.

Hilsa above and below Farakka

Hilsa once swam far up the Ganges, as far as Prayagraj and beyond, and fisheries there depended on the run. The Farakka Barrage, completed in 1975 to push more Ganges water into the Hooghly for the port of Kolkata, blocked most of the fish from going further upstream. Catches in the middle Ganges fell sharply. Today the Hooghly estuary and lower river carry most of India's hilsa catch, and West Bengal limits the use of fine-meshed nets that catch young fish.

Estuary fish

The estuary is a nursery for many fish that are popular in Bengali kitchens. Bhetki, the barramundi, is a prized fish for fry and paturi. Topse, the paradise threadfin, also called mango fish, appears in early summer and is fried whole. Bagda shrimp, mullets and pomfret come from the same waters. Kolkata's markets also draw on the bheris, the brackish ponds of the delta, where many of these fish are farmed.

Still to be written: Ilish, Barramundi, Paradise threadfin, Eleutheronema tetradactylum, Pangasius pangasius.

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