ICHTHYOFAUNAL DIVERSITY OF PILLAI KADAVU, NORTHERN REGION OF KAYAMKULAM BACKWATER, KERALA, INDIASooraj B., S. Jisha and B. HariAbstract Diversity and conservation status of fishes of Pillai Kadavu, the northern region of Kayamkulam backwater were analysed from April 2019 to March 2020. A total of 30 fishes under nine orders, 14 families and 22 genera were collected from the station. Order Cypriniformes and family Cyprinidae constituted the most species-rich order and family respectively. Shannon-Wiener diversity index of 2.73 and Margalef species richness of 7.56 were calculated along with a lower Peiolou evenness of 0.22 and Simpson dominance index of 0.88. All fishes were categorised with respect to the International Union for Conservation of Natureâs (IUCN) red list of threatened species and found that 22 species were categorised as Least Concern (LC), two fishes came under Vulnerable (VU), and one species was under Near Threatened (NT) category. Hypselobarbus curmuca was found to be Endangered (EN), one species was under Not Evaluated (NE) and three were categorised as Data Deficient (DD). The relative abundance showed that 13 fishes were abundant (A), two were included under Common (C) and 13 fishes were found to be Very Rare (VR) and two were Not Common (NC). |