Bull shark that attacked fisherman was first sighting in Vaitarna river

Local fishermen said they had never seen sharks in the water bodies in Palghar district, though dolphins have been seen frequently in Dahanu creek and Vaitarna river

The bull shark that attacked a fisherman in Vaitarna river at Dongripada in Maharashtra’s Palghar district on February 13 was the first sighting of a bull shark 40km upstream in the river near Manor, people familiar with the matter said. Sharks usually swim about 7 or 8 km into creeks and rivers in the district.

Local fishermen said the pregnant bull shark was sighted 40km upstream in the Vaitarna even though sharks usually swim about 7 or 8 km into creeks and rivers in Palghar district.

The bull shark ripped off almost the entire calf muscle of the 32-year-old fisherman Vicky Govari’s left leg. He was rescued by locals and is being treated at a hospital.

The bull shark, weighing around 550 kg and seven feet in length, died after this incident. The forest department and experts are yet to arrive at a definite conclusion on the reason for its death. One of the possibilities, the authorities said, could be that the fish was injured in shallow water or may also have been attacked by the locals after it attacked Govari.

Autopsy of the carcass also revealed that the shark was pregnant, carrying 15 pups, each weighing 5 to 6 kg and around 60-cm long.

Fishermen from the area said that sharks were not spotted near Manor earlier. Palghar district has Vaitarna, Kelwe, Satpati, Navapur, and Dahanu rivers/creeks, and the local fishermen said they had never seen sharks in any of these water bodies, though dolphins have been seen frequently in Dahanu creek and Vaitarna river.

Bharat Raut, a fisherman from Datiware, said that he had seen sharks in the rivers/creeks up to the Arnala Fort, which is around 7/8 km from the coast. Another fisherman from Dahanu, Kalpesh Arekar, said he had seen sharks in Dahanu creek, around 15 km from the coast of Dahanu, but none had spotted sharks in Vaitarna river in Palghar district.

Mohan Raut, chairman of the Datiware Fishermen Sarvodaya Co-operative Society, said he had been fishing in the river for years but had not seen a shark in Vaitarna river. He added that his father, who too was also a fisherman, had, however, warned him to be careful near Paragon and Darshet, which had a deep pit in the Vaitarna river. It was believed to be a breeding ground for sharks and other fish species, he said.

He added that elders had warned them to be careful in that section of Vaitarna River, as some fishermen had been attacked in that area decades ago.

Anil Chaudhari, an expert in the fishing and navigation field, said that many of the fishing species come to the Vaitarna river for breeding. He said a sub-species of sharks, known locally as ‘Modaka’ and which has a U-shaped mouth instead of V-shape of the bull shark, is routinely caught in the river by fishermen near Bahadoli village in Palghar in rainy season. Chaudhary said the pregnant shark might have travelled upstream for the want of food as fishes are scarce in that part of the sea.

Sai Tare, a fisherman for Kore village, said that due to sand excavation by mechanical dredgers in Vaitarna river, several deep pits have been created, and these pits are attracting a variety of fishes to the area, as these deep pits provide a safe place for breeding with sufficient food - green algae, vegetation from the river, and river fish which flow from the dam across the Vaitarna - for the breeding fishes.

As regards the travel of the pregnant bull shark around 40 km to Dongripada, fishermen said February 10 was a full-moon day and three consecutive days thereafter witnessed high-tides of over 5.5m water level, which must have prompted the bull shark to travel upstream. It, however, found it difficult to survive during the low tide.

A pregnant fish needs more food than required in the normal course and the availability of more fish in the river water, as compared to the sea near the coastline, could also be another reason for the pregnant bull shark to travel upstream.

Anand Ambire, a fisherman from Dahanu, however, said that sharks do not attack human beings unless they are instigated by some acts and possibly Vicky Govari too did something that prompted the bull shark to attack him.