India’s flora & fauna surprises you in the most unexpected ways. Manisha Mondal’s delightful story in The Print is about a stunning reversal of fortune. She writes: “For decades, Bengal’s beloved hilsa came from two places — the Padma in Bangladesh and rivers closer home. Over the last two years, both have faltered. In their place, an unlikely supplier has surged ahead: Gujarat. A largely vegetarian state has quietly become one of the biggest sources of hilsa for Bengal, reshaping trade routes and market hierarchies. Today, most hilsa in Kolkata’s markets travels east from the western coast and Gujarat’s catch has a near monopoly in markets across Bengal.”
The declining catch on Hilsa in Bengal and Bangladesh – partly due to overfishing and pollution and partly due to the damming of waters at the Farakka Barrage in Bengal – has been known about for decades. What’s unexpected is the arrival of Gujarati Hilsa. Ms Mondal explains what’s going on here:
“The shift became visible in 2024 when hilsa catches spiked sharply in Bharuch, along the Narmada. For local fishermen, it felt like history repeating itself. The river had not seen such numbers since the 1980s, when industrial activity along its banks was far lower. In 2025, the scale stunned even seasoned traders: more than 4,000 tonnes of hilsa moved from Gujarat to eastern India, with fishermen estimates crossing 6,000 tonnes if sea catch is included…
It all started last summer. Heavy rainfall has increased freshwater flow into the Narmada, lowering salinity near the estuary — the precise conditions hilsa need to migrate upriver. Pollution levels, locals say, have not fallen. The river simply carried more fresh water than usual.
At first, it didn’t seem unusual. The catch was okay, better than some previous years. Then came the revelation.
“I pulled up my net and it was far heavier than normal,” recalled Imran Memon, a fisherman for 25 years. It was hilsa, net after net. Trucks lined the riverbank for weeks. For three months, the shore became a parking lot of vehicles waiting to be loaded.
For two months, quiet Bharuch turned frenetic, its riverbanks lined with trucks and workers racing against spoilage. All hands were on deck.
The fishermen and traders had last witnessed such a phenomenon in almost fifty years ago.
“I have always heard stories from my father of Narmada being flooded with hilsa. When my father went fishing in the 1980s, hilsa would flow like liquid silver in Narmada,” said Memon. “This was the first time I was seeing it.”
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