Shark beaten to death by fisherman's friends after almost biting his leg off

14 February 2024 , 20:21

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Bull sharks have very few natural predators (Image: Getty Images/Image Source)

A giant shark was beaten to death after attacking a man who was fishing in a river.

The incident happened on Wednesday in the district of Palghar in Maharashtra, a state in the west of India. A man, identified as Vickey Govari, was in the Vaitarna river by Manor village with friends when a bull shark suddenly bit into his lower leg, almost severing it.

His quick-thinking companions heard his harrowing screams and were thankfully able to rescue him by pulling him away from the giant fish. They then began to beat the fearsome predator to death while in the murky river.

The shark, however, was able to cause significant damage to Vickey and had completely bit off his calf muscle. Following the attack he was rushed to hospital and for emergency treatment.

Pawan Sharma, the founder and president of non-profit RAWW (Resqink Association for Wildlife Welfare), said the shark in this incident was around seven-foot long and weight almost 130kg.

Teen girl mauled to death by shark in front of her friends in horrendous attack

Shark attacks in rivers are unusual as the fish normally live in saltwater, such as the ocean, but bull sharks can live and breed in freshwater and are known to swim in such tight water channels. There are also reports and evidence of them being found in creeks and dams several kilometres away from saltwater due to reasons such as lack of prey base due to over-fishing, being victims of bycatch, degradation and habitat loss, Pawan said.

He added that the Mangrove Cell, which takes care of the marine and aquatic wildlife wings of the forest department, is looking into the attack but noted that bull sharks are considered a vulnerable species according to the IUCN (International Union for the Conservation of Nature) and are among the top species of sharks facing extinction, reported Hindustan Times.

Elsewhere, a terrifying video appeared earlier this month showing the moment a shark attacked a group of tourist divers in the Maldives. The huge predator went straight to one diver before attacking the next, smashing into the group with its snout and strong head.

The video was shared on Instagram, by a spearfishing guide from the Cayman Islands, Cameron Kirkconnell, as a stark reminder to his 126,000 to stay extremely careful when diving in the sea. He captioned the video: "Maldives shark dive fun. I don’t want my insta to be full of these but this one was a great example of people put in a situation they thought was fine. It wasn’t."

The guide clarified the video wasn't his, but was used to call for a ban on tourists diving in the ocean with sharks. No one was badly injured in the video, which was shared to Telegram by local news channel MyCrisis.

Steven White