Panaji, Dec 19 (IANS): An activist who was swimming across the Mandovi river, hosting five off shore casinos, on Goa Liberation Day Thursday as a protest against the mafia had to be hospitalized after he was attacked by jellyfish.

Sudeep Dalvi is currently under observation at the Vintage hospital in Panaji due to increased toxicity in his bloodstream because of the jellyfish attack.

Dalvi told IANS: "I was swimming across the Mandovi river in protest against the casino, mining and drug mafia in north Goa and the lack of action against them when I was attacked by a group of jellyfish mid-river."

The protest swim was held Dec 19, which marks the anniversary of Goa's Liberation when the Indian Army marched into Goa on the same day in 1961 to liberate it from over four centuries of Portuguese rule.

Dalvi's left arm and limb were paralyzed by the toxic stings of the jellyfish and he had to be whisked away to the city hospital when he reached the Panaji river bank.

Marine scientists have warned that increasing pollution and garbage in the Mandovi river, which flanks Panaji, had triggered a virtual explosion of jellyfish in the river.