Fish Groups and Its Composition in Chandakhal Wetland of Dhubri District, Assam (India) and Their Conservation Status | Chapter 4 | Contemporary Research and Perspectives in Biological Science Vol. 9

In India, floodplain lakes support a lucrative fishery, particularly in the eastern and north-eastern states and are considered the second most important inland fisheries resources of the country. The wetland ecosystems are used by fishes as a refuge for breeding, feeding and nesting purposes at one or the other stage of their life cycle. The Inland fisheries and aquaculture play an important role in providing cheap animal protein to the human dietary composition of rural Assam in India. Fish groups like carp, clupeids, perches, murrels, catfishes, minnows etc. comprise a good number of species in the region. Apart from the riverine fisheries different wetland fisheries associated with the two major rivers, namely the Brahmaputra and Barak in Assam have contributed a major part in fish production. The aim of the present study is to enquire about the numerical relative abundance of fishes categorized into three main fish groups viz., Major, Intermediate and Minor fish groups in Chandakhal wetland located in Dhubri district, in the state of Assam, India. This is an investigative study based on the data collected from the fish caught at the designated landing stations. It finds that the numerical relative abundance of most of the individual valued food fish species falling under the Major Fish Group is less than 1.00% and the total numerical relative abundance of the Major Group fishes constitutes only 4.05%. Among the Major Group fish species, Labeo calbasu has the highest relative abundance of 0.74%. Under the Intermediate fish group, the most abundant species is Macrognathus pancalus having a numerical relative abundance of 5.58%. Again, among the Minor Group, Lepidocephalichthys guntea is the most relatively abundant fish species whose numerical relative abundance is 7.92%. The ‘near threatened’ species like Wallago attu and Chitala chitala have relative abundances of 0.23% and 0.09% respectively and the ‘endangered’ species Clarias magur is found to have a relative abundance as low as 0.08% in the present study. The present study confronts various natural as well as anthropogenic factors that affect the health of the wetland. It was concluded that the relative abundance of most of the threatened and valued food fish species of the study area is poor. The present finding opens a potential area of study to find out the cause of dwindling fish abundance and formulate a solution to the problem.

 

Author (s) Details

 

S. Sheikh
Department of Zoology, B.N. College, Dhubri, Assam, India.

 

M. M. Goswami
Department of Zoology, Gauhati University, Guwahati, Assam, India.

 

Please see the book here:- https://doi.org/10.9734/bpi/crpbs/v9/3883