Nearly two tonnes of hilsa valued over Rs 20 lakh were burnt to ashes in a fire at a godown inside Digha’s Matsya Nilam Kendra market.

The fire reportedly started around midnight from cigarette ashes of a worker sleeping on the premises. East Midnapore district police began an investigation into the cause of the incident.

Sources in the local fish traders’ association have lamented the latest blow to an “already dismal” hilsa season this year, which most fishermen in the district rely on for a substantial portion of their yearly income.

“Twelve stores caught fire last night. Among them was a fish godown (in right picture) storing the coveted fish worth of Rs 20 lakh,” said a police officer.

“This has caused a further setback for fishermen who were already reeling from a bad hilsa season,” said Digha Fishermen’s and Fish-traders’ Association secretary Shyam Sundar Das.

Bablu Gaji, an owner of the godown and resident of North 24-Parganas’s Basirhat, said: “This fish is very costly and I was depending on the income to repay bank loans. I had lost approximately 600kg of fish.” He said each fish was priced between approximately Rs 800 and Rs 1,200.