Tips on tweet leads to seizure of 3 tonnes of banned Thai Catfish in Thane

Thane, April 19 The Maharashtra Fisheries Department swooped on an illegal fish breeding farm and seized 3,000 kgs of the banned Thai Catfish (Magur), after a tip-off received on Twitter, officials said here on Wednesday.

The development followed a series of tweets by a social activist Binu Varghese to the Thane Collector Ashok Shingare highlighting the racket perpetrated openly.

Taking strong cognisance of Varghese's tweets, the Collector immediately directed the Assistant Commissioner of Fisheries, Bhiwandi, Dinesh H. Patil to check and do the needful in the matter.

Patil told that their investigations revealed around 28 farm ponds in Padgha were taken on rent from tribals by one Salauddin Mondal of West Bengal who was unauthorisedly breeding the banned fish species in three large ponds sprawled over three acres.

After proper verification of all details, the Fisheries Department team led by Patil, along with a police escort cracked down on the breeding farms and removed a huge quantity of Thai Catfish from the three ponds on April 15.

Following due protocols for its disposal, they deployed JCBs for digging up a huge trench nearby and buried the Thai Catfish to prevent its stench or other ill-effects in the vicinity of the other fishponds.

Padgha Police Inspector Sanjay S. Sable said that they have registered a FIR and nabbed three persons - Alamgir Mondal, Abdul Qayum, Yunusali Gazi - while the further investigations are handed over to head constable Pramod G. Konje.

The National Green Tribunal has banned the breeding of Thai Catfish - which can grow upto 3-5 feet long - in the country since 2000.