Description

Rajnandgaon district has many hilly forests, plateau areas and varied natural aquatic resources suitable for agriculture and fisheries. Because biodiversity is important for sustainable ecosystem conservation so this district was selected for the study purpose. Fish diversity studies were done in the five river basins viz., (i) Sheonath basin (ii) Baghnadi basin (iii) Kotrinadi basin (iv)Pairynadi basin and (v) Aamer basin. In the present study a total of 63 species belonging to 37 genera, 20 families and 7 orders were recorded from 14 sampling sites with seven new species: Crossocheilus latius, Colisa lalia, Labeo dero, Labeo dyocheilus, Pseudambassis lala, Puntius amphibious and Ompok pabda. Sheonath, Baghnadi, Kotrinadi, Pairynadi and Aamer rivers have 59, 46, 48, 45 and 44 species respectively. The family Cyprinidae with 26 species forms the largest single group in the fish fauna of Rajnandgaon district. Likewise 10 species were assessed for threat as per National Bureau of Fish Genetic Resources Lucknow, India. criteria; they are two endangered species and eight vulnerable species.