Ecology, Environment and Conservation Paper

ICHTHYOFAUNAL DIVERSITY CORRELATES HYDROLOGICALPARAMETERS IN WETLANDS OF NAMERI NATIONAL PARK ANDITS ADJACENT AREA, ASSAM, INDIA

Sangeeta Mili and Prasanta Kumar Saikia

Abstract

Excessive anthropogenic activities such as heavy fishing, the fish fauna in northeast India has been decliningat a rapid rate. The wetlands in Nameri National Park (NNP) witness the severe decline of fish fauna dueto overfishing and human interference in the buffer zone. The present study has been carried out from May2017 to April 2019 in 12 random sampling sites. A total of 79 fish species were recorded belonging to 6orders and 24 families. The order Cypriniformes was found to be dominant with 44 fish species followedby Siluriformes with 18 species, Perciformes with 11 species, Synbranchiformes with 4 species, andBeloniformes and Cluepiformes with one species each. The Shannon-Wiener diversity index (3.81), Margalefrichness index (8.07), Pielou’sevenness index (0.59) was high, while Simpson dominance index (0.02) waslow in the pre-monsoon season, which indicates that during pre-monsoon the fish diversity has been highestthan the other seasons of the year. As far as biodiversity status (IUCN Status) is concerned, 78.48% LeastConcern (LC), 3.79% Data Deficient (DD), 5.06% Not Evaluated (NE), 7.59% Near Threatened (NT), 2.53%Vulnerable (VU) and 2.53% Endangered (EN) respectively. However, two vulnerable and endangered specieshave been found during the survey.