Bhubaneswar: Fishermen in Odisha netted a giant stingray, weighing around 3 quintals, from Devi river at Astaranga in Puri district on Monday.
Locally known as “Sankucha,” the giant ray got entangled in a fishing net cast by a group of around 20 local fishermen, including Shankar Behera, Jumar Behera, and Gangadhar Behera, during a routine trip on the Devi river, a tributary of the Mahanadi.
According to sources, the giant 12-foot-long fish could be brought to the shore after two hours of continuous and coordinated effort to bring and later sold to a private buyer from West Bengal. “Stingray meat fetches about Rs 200 per kg in the market. Since this one weighs roughly 300 kg, we expect to earn around Rs 60,000 from the sale,” one of the fishermen told reporters.
The stingray, commonly found in deeper sea waters, is suspected to have entered the river mouth while searching for food, eventually drifting into the Devi river. “Stingrays feed on small fish and frequently move from the sea into the river when prey is plentiful. They can be dangerous—their barbed tails are capable of delivering fatal stings to humans,” a fisherman explained.
