The myth and magic of palla fish

HYDERABAD: For the fishermen of southern Sindh, it is a time to rejoice and catch the prized ‘palla’ fish.
On the left bank of the gushing Indus, several boats line up downstream of the Kotri Barrage. On one of them, the elderly Suleman Mallah is busy cleaning his fishing net. He is preparing for the next day, when it will be his turn to take his boat out and hopefully net a few’palla’.
“It is an arrangement we have worked out through mutual understanding. We don’t go into the river at the same time. We wait for our turn”, he tells Dawn.
Suleman and other fishermen travel around 200ft to 250ft into the river to have a decent catch, which includes a variety of fish.
“We are catching palla these days, although its number is not that encouraging,” the fisherman tells Dawn, lamenting how the species’ number has reduced considerably from the stories their elders used to tell them. He blames the low flows downstream of Kotri barrage for this situation.
As he is talking, his friend, Nizam, returns to the bank after a hectic hour of fishing.
“Ahay pallo aahaye (we havepalla),” says Nizam while pointing to the fishes he managed to catch. The palla, with its shining silver skin, stands out among the catch.
It is known for its unique aroma and taste and is one of the most famous culinary delights of lower Sindh, besides being part of the region’s cultural identity.
This species is known as Hilsa in Pakistan, India and Bangladesh, with the scientific name tenualosa ilisha, and in addition to the subcontinent, is found mostly in Myanmar, Iraq and Iran.
“Length-wise, palla is not more than 60cm and over 700 grams in weight”, says Mohammad Moazzam Khan, a WWF technical adviser who is an expert on the species and its life cycle. The fish lives and is caught in groups between the 1,200km stretch of river, from the Arabian Sea to Kotri.
“Palla is unlike other species that take solo flight”, explains Mr Khan, who is also a former Marines and Fisheries director general.
It can travel 60 to 70km in a day and enters the Indus river from the sea during the monsoon season, around May or June.
After breeding and spawning till January and March, it returns to the ocean.
A prize catch
For fishermen like Suleman, palla is a coveted catch. But, its availability in the river depends on the water flow downstream Kotri.
Mr Khan says that the Indus river is flowing into the Arabian Sea this season, which is healthy for the growth of the fish and the health of the Indus delta too.
Thanks to heavy rains and high water flows from upstream areas, a medium flood of over 300,000 cusecs passed the barrage until last month.
The population of palla has also steadily increased since the start of this decade, according to data from the Ministry of Maritime Affairs.
Mr Khan links this increase to the Indus river entering the sea, near Thatta.
The production of palla was 502 tonnes in the year 1999 but plumme­ted to 149 tonnes by 2004. According to Mr Khan, it was only after 2011 that there was an upward trend — from 254 tonnes in 2011 to 1,506 ton­nes in 2020 and 1,540 tonnes in 2023.
The rise in production is a boon for fishermen like Suleman and Nizam due to its high cost, which has risen exponentially in recent years due to hyperinflation, making its consumption a fantasy for the poor.
According to Suleman, the fish sells for between Rs8,000 to Rs10,000 a piece, while a hotel owner near the Kotri barrage tells Dawn that a piece of fried palla — which is relatively smaller in size — costs around Rs7,000.
“There are people from lower income groups who approach us at the bank to buy palla. They simply can’t afford it these days, so we tell them we don’t have it”, adds a younger fisherman, Mumtaz, who works with Suleman on his boat.
The fishermen invariably try to catch palla during every fishing round, but their success depends on a number of factors. There is also the threat of illegal fishing.
A locally-made net, called bolo gujjo, which is banned due to its ability to catch even the smallest fish, is used by some fishermen in the delta region to catch palla.
“Palla’s journey starts from Kharo Chhan, one of 17 creeks of Indus delta. But there, the banned net is used to [catch] the fish which is six inches long”, according to Mr Khan, the former Marines and Fisheries DG.
Mumtaz says that even though the river water has touched the banks, he could walk up to some distance inside the river as the bed is full of sediment brought down by floodwaters.
Mythology
Palla, in southern Sindh, is bigger than a cultural identity. It has a myth associated with it, which is quoted quite often by fishermen.
After passing through the Kotri barrage, the fishermen believe the palla goes to the shrine of Khawaja Khizer, near Sukkur, some 300km north of the barrage.
The shrine is also known as ‘Zinda Pir’ among the fishermen who say that once palla returns to the barrage area, it has a turmeric coloured spot.
“I have personally seen it. A palla that goes to the shrine develops altogether a different taste,” says Mr Mumtaz with utmost conviction.
Published in Dawn, September 22nd, 2024