A Review of the Freshwater Fish Fauna of West Bengal, India with Suggestions for Conservation of the Threatened and Endemic Species

About this book

The present paper is primarily aimed to up date the list of the Freshwater Fishes of West Bengal in view of the changes in the nomenclature of the fishes after the publication of the fishes from this state (Sen, 1992). Sen (op. cit.) recorded 171 species (he had listed 172 species, one species was recorded twice in the list) from West Bengal. Some of the fishes, which were omitted in the list of the fishes, have been incorporated in this communication. This shows that West Bengal contains 239 species belonging to 147 genera, 49 families and 15 orders of freshwater fishes. Since West Bengal is one of the eight maritime states of India lying on the northeastern coast, some marine or estuarine fishes are regularly found along with the freshwater fishes of this state. Considering all the threatened and endemic freshwater fishes of this state, some conservation measures have been suggested for their protection and conservation in this paper.

Contents

1. Introduction
2. Systematic list of the freshwater fishes of West Bengal
3. Threats and strategies for conservation
4. Factors responsible for threatening the fish resources
i. Habitat loss and degradation
ii. Over-exploitation
iii. Competition from exotic species
5. Suggestions to safe guard the threatened, near threatened and endemic fish species of West Bengal
i. Habitat change should be carefully considered
ii. Environment impact assessment of the exotic fish species
iii. Use of endemic and native fish species for aquaculture
iv. Monitoring on pollution of the natural water bodies
v. Strict implementation of the laws governing the fishing activities
vi. Fish sanctuary
vii. Protection and conservation of the endemic species
viii. Public awareness programmes

Summary and the concluding remarks
Acknowledgements
References

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