Fish biodiversity of Betwa River in Madhya Pradesh, India with special reference to a sacred ghat

Abstract

Many sacred natural sites are areas of great importance for the conservation of biodiversity. Sacred natural sites can be considered a subset of “sacred sites”, which may be defined as areas of special spiritual significance to people and communities. The wider category of sacred sites may include primarily natural areas (such as forests), but also human-built or monumental areas (such as temples). Many built or monumental sacred sites are themselves located in areas with high natural values that are often recognised by the faith concerned. IUCN focuses on areas that are primarily natural, as they link to its mission, but generally supports the cause of conserving both monumental and natural sacred sites as valuable elements of human cultures. In this regards authors have tried to identify a natural sacred site at Betwa River in Madhya Pradesh and compared the fish diversity and distribution to two non sacred sites. The sampling was carryout between 2006 - April 2007. Sixty fish species belonging to 15 families and 34 genera out of 60 species, 48 species have been recorded at a sacred ghat. A total of 5,461 individuals of fish were counted during the one study period. The most abundant family was Cyprinidae, having 3,594 individuals (65.81%) and subdominant family was Ambassidae, which accounted for 441 individuals (8.08%); rest of the families contributed in order of abundance throughout the study. The diversity indices (Shannon, Simpson and Margalef) showed higher values at S3 (a sacred ghat) sampling site as compared to other two (S1, and S2) non sacred sampling sites. Key words: Betwa river, biotic indices, ecological status, fish diversity and sacred ghat.