Longitudinal distribution of the fish fauna in the river Ganga from Gangotri to Kanpur
Article Main
Abstract
Fish fauna of the river Ganga from Gangotri to Kanpur consisted of 140 fish species from 9 orders and 25 families; 63 fish species from 6 orders and 12 families in the mountain section (MS), while 122 species from 9 orders and 25 families in the Plains section (PS) of Upper Ganga. Cypriniformes and Cyprinidae were most species rich order and family in both sections. Forty six fish species primarily Cypriniformes and Siluriformes are common to both sections, only 17 in MS and 76 in PS. Orders Tetradontiformes, Osteoglossiformes and Clupeiformes were present in PS only. The taxonomic richness in the MS was low compared to PS. Probably motility and physiological requirements in respect of tolerance for temperature restrict faunal elements.
Article Details
Article Details
Cyprinidae, Fish distribution, Gangetic plains, Himalaya, River continuum
Carter, J.C.H., Dadswell, M.J., Roff, J.C. and Sprules, W.G. (1980). Distribution of zoogeography of planktonic crustaceans and dipterans in glaciated eastern North America. Canadian Journal of Zoology, 58:1355-1387.
Day, F. (1958). The fishes of India: being a natural history of the fishes known to inhibit the seas and freshwater of India, Burma and Ceylon. William Dawson, London.
Gregory, S.V., Swanson, F.J., Mckee, W.A. and Cummins, K.W. (1991). An ecosystem prespective of riparian zones. Bioscience, 41: 540-551.
RIS (2004). Information Sheet on Ramsar Wetlands. World Wide Fund (WWF), India, pp. 1-14.
Jayaram, K.C. (2002). The freshwater fishes of the Indian region. Narendra Publishing House, Delhi.
Khanna, D.R. and Badola S.P. (1994). Habitat and breeding grounds. In: P. Nautiyal (Ed.) Mahseer: The Game fish Jagdamba Prakashnan, Dehradun.
Nautiyal P., Shivam, A., Verma J. and Semwal, V.P. (2007). Bhagirathi river- An endangered ecosystem. In: B. Venkatramani, V.D. Puranik, S.K. Apte, H.N. Gour, S.K. Sharma, L.L. Sharma, Y.S. Durve, H.C.L. Gupta, P.C. Verma, B.K. Sharma, (Eds.), Proceedings of DAE-BRNS National Symposium on Limnology, Paliwal Printers, Udaipur, India. pp 164-166
Nautiyal, P., Shivam, A., Verma, J. and Dwivedi, R.K. (2010). Quarterly progress report (September 09) for the Living Ganga Programme with respect to environmental flow submitted to WWF, New Delhi, India.
Negi, K.S. and Malik, D.S. (2005). Fish fauna of Ganga river at Rishikesh. Himalayan Journal of Environmental Zoology, 19(2): 145-148.
O’Keeffe, J., Kaushal, N., Bharti, L. and Smathkin, V. (2012). Assessment of Environmental Flows for the Upper Ganga Basin. WWF – India.
Rao, R.J. (2001). Studies on biological restoration of Ganga river in Uttar Pradesh: an indicator species approach. Hydrobiologia, 458: 159–168.
Sharma, M.K. and Rajput, D.B. (1986). Ichthyofauna of Bijnor District (Uttar Pradesh). Journal Bombay Natural History Society, 83 (3):562-569.
Shukla, A.C. And Vandana, A. (1995). Ganga: A water marvel. Ashish Publishing House, New Delhi.
Singh, H.R., Badola, S.P. and Dobriyal, A.K. (1987). Geographical distributional list of ichthyofauna of the Garhwal Himalaya with some new records. Journal of Bombay Natural History Society, 84: 126-132.
Talwar, P.K. and Jhingran, A.G. (1991). Inland Fishes of India and Adjacent Countries. Oxford & IBH Publishing Co Pvt Ltd., New Delhi Volumes I-II.
Wiley, M.J., Kohler, S.L. and Seelbach, P.W. (1997). Reconciling landscape and local views of aquatic communities: lessons from Michigan trout streams. Freshwater Biology, 37: 133-148.
http://thdc.gov.in/writereaddata/english/pdf/VOL4.pdf,accessed on 15.09.2011
This work is licensed under Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0) © Author (s)
