Staff Reporter
Guwahati: It is not only the one-horned rhinoceros in Assam that is the target of poachers or other wildlife. Rare fish like the Channa Barca, also known as the Barca snakehead and locally known as cheng garaka or garaka cheng, are now on the list of poachers and smugglers of wildlife.
The authorities in Assam rescued a large number of the fish and apprehended the smugglers of the fish over the years. In December 2023, the forest department thwarted an attempt to smuggle 500 rare Channa Barca at Dibrugarh Airport, making it one of the largest seizures of exotic fish in recent times. The fish worth Rs 4.5 crore in the international market were seized from two individuals when they were about to board a flight to Kolkata.
In July this year, Kaziranga National Park authorities arrested a person who is part of a gang smuggling Channa Barca fish and recovered four live Channa barca fish.
Again in October 2024, Government Railway Police and Assam Forest officials recovered a massive consignment of endangered Channa Barca fish from Guwahati Railway Station.
According to sources, the rescue was made possible due to specific inputs, leading to the seizure of 62 rare and endangered Channa Barca fish. The fish were found hidden in two sealed cartons containing 31 plastic packets, Wildlife Crime Control Bureau (WCCB) sources said.
A live Channa Barca can fetch up to Rs 1 lakh per fish in the international grey market. The species is scheduled under the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972, making its trade and possession illegal. It is listed as endangered on the IUCN Red List.
Channa Barca is a sought-after species found in the freshwater bodies and is endemic to the upper Brahmaputra River basin in northeastern India and Bangladesh. It is said to play a vital role in maintaining the balance of its ecosystem as a top predator. Its unique characteristics and scarcity make it a prime target of illegal wildlife traffickers involved in exotic pet trade. The traffickers mostly send the fish to Indonesia, Malaysia, China, and Japan, where it has a thriving market.
The Channa Barca, with their striking patterns and elusive nature, is highly prized in the illegal wildlife market. Their natural habitat—metre-deep burrows along the wetland peripheries—makes them difficult to find and even harder to capture. During the monsoon, these fish emerge from their hidden chambers to hunt and breed, making them vulnerable to poachers.
The species is regarded as an excellent food fish, and it is also highly desired by aquarists, but its rarity, behaviour, and large size make it unsuitable for most aquariums, sources said.
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