Fish Community Structure of Sandha River: A Link Analysis towards Fisheries Management and Conservation

Abstract

Sandha River water regime is used as a nursery, feeding and breeding places by commercially important fish species due to the presence of unique environment. Therefore, the present study has been conducted to assess water quality parameters, fish species abundance, fish diversity indices, conservation issues and management policy to guard the valuable aquatic resources of Sandha River from March 2015 to February 2016. Among the water quality parameters, temperature and pH were found at a slight rising level which possessed insignificant negative correlation with fish species abundance (p<0.01). Fish diversity indices were calculated of which the value of Shannon-Wiener Index just above 3 which indicated the river ecosystem still approving good fish community structure where lower value of richness described short food webs. Garretts Ranking Technique was applied to identify the reasons behind the decline of Sandha River fish species over the periods. The study, therefore, concluded that the river has experienced with slight climate modifications and significant anthropogenic activities especially huge fishing pressure which in a feedback reduce the fisheries stock resources with time. Community-based fisheries management (CBFM) hence would be an appropriate tool to make the water resources sustainable.