A fisherman from Basirhat died in the wee hours of Saturday, hours after a live perch that he had held in his mouth after a catch went down his throat.

The fish blocked the wind¬pipe of Dinabandhu Biswas, 52, causing his eventual asphyxiation.

Biswas, a resident of Kho¬lapotaGobindapur village in Basirhat's Matia, was rushed by other fishermen to Basirhat district hospital, from where he was transferred to RG Kar hospital in Calcutta where he finally succumbed.

“Doctors in Calcutta too couldn’t dislodge the fish,” said a source, explaining the fish's barbs and gills were “too prickly” to be taken off the windpipe.

Sources said the incident occurred when Biswas was fishing on a canal at the Kholapota-Gobindapur village on Friday afternoon.

Fishermen often hold a live fish with their teeth in the absence of a container to keep it, despite knowing that the prac¬tice is risky, local sources explained.

Eyewitnesses said Biswas, while clearing his net after the catch, found a perch fish stuck on it. “He caught the fish and put it under his teeth, the usual practice among fishermen when there is no container to put the fish into. Suddenly we found him critical as the perch slipped down his throat,” an eyewitness said.

Biswas wasn’t even able to raise an alarm, said another eyewitness who along with others took the gasping man to the Bisairhat hospital. “Doctors tried to bring out the fish but failed,” he said.

District hospital authorities transferred him to RG Kar hospital, where Biswas died during the early hours of Saturday morning, a relative said.

“Initially, the extent of the situation was not clear to us. We were later told the patient had a whole perch stuck in his windpipe. Gasping critically, he was put on ventilation. But despite (our) best efforts, the patient was not receiving any oxygen,” a doctor said.

Local sources said it was common practice for many fishermen in the Basirhat-Hingalganj belt to hold live fish with their teeth despite knowing the possible risks. “Fishermen in the past have died from it,” a source said.

An official of Matia gram panchayat said; “We on several occasions have launched awareness drives to discourage such habits, but people ignore them and invite danger.”