Legacy Matters
A FEARSOME mutant fish has started killing people after feeding on human corpses, scientists fear.
They reckon that a huge type of catfish, called a goonch, may have developed a taste for flesh in an Indian river where bodies are dumped after funerals.
Locals have believed for years that a mysterious monster lurks in the water. But they think it has moved on from scavenging to snatching unwary bathers who venture into the Great Kali, which flows along the India-Nepal border.
The extraordinary creature has been investigated by biologist Jeremy Wade for a TV documentary to be shown on Five.
He said: “The locals have told me of a theory that this monster has grown extra large on a diet of partially burnt corpses. It has perhaps got this taste for flesh by feasting on remains of funeral pyres. There will be a few freak individuals that grow bigger than the other ones and if you throw in extra food, they will grow even bigger.”
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He caught one which tipped the scales at 161lb and was nearly 6ft long – a world record weight and far bigger than any landed before.
He said: “If that got hold of you, there’d be no getting away.
An 18-year-old Nepali disappeared in the river last year, dragged down by something described as like an “elongated pig”.
Hi,
i wanted to let everyone know that neither people from India or Nepal throw unburnt bodies in the rivers or sea. Being Hindu Countries they have certian rituals to perform before a dead body is burnt.
Dead bodies are treated with "Desi Ghee" made from milk, along with various other "HAWAN" ingredients. The ritual is that the family members stay till the head of the dead boby does not burst and that does not happen till the flesh has burnt completely.
So I think this "MONSTER" which has grown from a size of a fish to a Elongated Pig is not from bodies thrown in the river.
Posted by: sheeba at October 27, 2008 6:31 PM