Saving ilish

The indigenous hilsa, or the Ganga ilish, faces tough competition from its Bangladeshi counterpart, the Padmar ilish. Efforts are on to procure GI status for the Ganga ilish, which could help prevent extinction.

Monsoon in Bengal is synonymous with ilish mach, or the hilsa fish, which Bengalis everywhere swear by. This year, as fish-loving Bengalis prepare to cook their favourite sorse ilish, hilsa in mustard sauce, the state fisheries department is trying to get a Geographical Indicator (GI) for the Ganga ilish — the hilsa from Ganges.

“We are creating a blue print for the GI status for the hilsa fish to promote it as a brand of Bengal and to encourage entrepreneurs to introduce tinned ready-to-cook hilsa in both the domestic and international markets,” says Debashis Sen, principal secretary, Department of Fisheries. “The GI status would safeguard the rights of Bengal’s hilsa fish from the hilsa coming from other regions of the country and also boost tourism in Bengal,” adds Sen.

After Darjeeling tea , both of which have GI status and are exported, the government is trying to protect its market from the hilsa procured from Bangladesh and Myanmar.

“We have already had discussions with the Hilsa Importers Association. The government will help them with the infrastructure necessary to enter into new ventures such as packaging and tinned products to reach out to a bigger market,” says Sen.

But the competition is tough. Bangladesh’s biggest export, after textiles, is Padmar ilish — hilsa from the river Padma in Bangladesh. So it’s not going to be easy for the Ganga ilish from West Bengal to get GI status. Noted food critique Mani Shankar Mukherjee says, “Hilsa is the most unfortunate among all the fishes because it gets its name not from the place of origin but from the place where they are captured. Both Ganga ilish and Padmar ilish are from the same family and do not differ much in taste or quality.”

The hilsa, or the tenualosa ilisha, is anadromous, that is, it lives in the salt-water seas, but migrates to fresh-water rivers during breeding season in the monsoons. It is here that they are caught in the fisherman’s net.

In the market, the Padma ilish scores over the Ganga ilish. “There is a huge demand for Bangladeshi hilsa which on an average weighs between 1 kg and 1.5 kg. The Ganga ilish, on the other hand, would weigh around 500 gm or a little more. Anyway, it is soon going to become extinct,” says Syed Anwar Maqsood, secretary, Fish Importers Association. Due to the sharp decline in the yield of the hilsa from the Ganges, wholesalers have to import the fish from Maharashtra and Gujarat on the western coast and also from Myanmar and Bangladesh. “In recent times, owing to the scarcity of the fish in the Ganges, prices have also shot up to Rs 750 a kg,” adds Maqsood.

Though Bangladesh is the major supplier of hilsa, Maqsood believes that with the GI status the government would be able to regulate the fishing of khoka or young ilish which are yet to breed — the reason for the dwindling number of the fish in the Ganges. “In Bangladesh, the government has put in place strict guidelines to protect the hilsa population. Fishermen are barred from fishing the hilsa for two months of their spawning season and also from “jhatka fishing”, the local term for catching young hilsa," adds Maqsood. He believes that the government in India must also implement similarly stringent norms to save the hilsa.

Ironically, even Kolkata’s restaurants seem to prefer the Bangladeshi hilsa. “We will start an ilish festival once the better Bangladeshi hilsa hits the market from the end of July with offerings like bhapa ilish, ilish begun and sorse ilish,” says Sushanta Sengupta, partner and the chief chef of 6 Ballygunge Place, a restaurant specialising in authentic Bengali delicacies.