Just when you thought it was safe to wash your succulent young flesh in India’s Great Kali river, we find out the thing may be chock full of mutant man-eating fish. The goonch is a kind of gigantic catfish that frequents these waters. It’s naturally one of the largest freshwater fish in the world, topping out at 161 pounds and six feet long. But the local tradition along the India/Nepal border of burning the dead on funeral pyres and dropping their charred corpses in the river may have given the goonches a taste for human meat. In 2007, a Nepali teenager disappeared after being dragged into the river by something identified as an “elongated pig”. Biologist Jeremy Wade has been looking into the murderous goonches for an upcoming BBC Five documentary subtly named Flesh Eating River Monster, and he thinks some unusually large mutant goonches may have grown even bigger by feasting on barbequed man-hock. In other words, start booking your hotels now. More details (including video) here.
