India's Mansai river lies about 400 kilometres from the Padma river in Bangladesh. Large hilsa are now being caught in this river too, next to the town of Mathabhanga in Cooch Behar. Hilsa catches there are not entirely rare, but local fishermen are delighted, and the news has been widely reported by Kolkata media.

The Mansai, or Jaldhaka, river rises in the Himalayas in south-east Sikkim, flows through Bhutan and the Darjeeling, Jalpaiguri and Cooch Behar districts of West Bengal, and enters Bangladesh through Lalmonirhat district. It then joins the Dharla and, under the name Dharla, flows into the Brahmaputra near Kurigram. After a long journey the Brahmaputra meets the Padma. By river, the distance from the Padma to the Mansai is therefore about 400 kilometres, and very few hilsa make it all the way to the West Bengal river.

Local people say a good number of hilsa were caught in the Mansai about three years ago, and the signs look good again this year.

Fishermen in the Mathabhanga area have already started preparing to catch hilsa. After large hilsa were recently caught in fishermen's nets in the Bhogdabri area, others are hopeful too. Hilsa are expected to be available in the Mansai throughout November. The fish may not match Padma hilsa in taste and aroma, but local demand for it is far from small.

Ratul Ghoshal, fisheries officer of the Mathabhanga-1 block, said some hilsa are found in the Mansai river, though their taste is not like that of Padma or Ganges hilsa. "That does no harm, though. Fresh hilsa is available, and local people are happy with that," he said.

Source: Jagonews24. First published in Bengali on The Agro News.