Event Abstract Back to Event Conservation of freshwater fishes of the Western Ghats Hotspot, India Rajeev Raghavan1* 1 Kerala University of Fisheries and Ocean Studies, India With over 300 species, of which ~65% are endemic, the freshwater fish fauna of the Western Ghats mountain ranges is one of the richest and unique in the tropical world. The endemism is also just not restricted to the species level, as there is at least 1 family and 19 genera of fish that are unique to this region. Freshwater fish has also been part of history and culture in the Western Ghats since several centuries, and they are intricately linked to the daily life of millions of rural poor. Despite these striking statistics, the ichthyofauna of the Western Ghats Biodiversity Hotspot is threatened by a variety of stressors including large-scale deforestation, hydropower and drainage basin alterations, pollution, overharvest and alien species, resulting in over one-third of the fish fauna assessed as threatened on the IUCN Red List. While a number of species have experienced catastrophic population declines in the last few decades, several enigmatic new species (and genera) continue to be discovered from the Western Ghats indicating that our knowledge on the ichthyofauna of this region is still far from being complete. With increasing consciousness regarding the conservation of aquatic biodiversity, several conservation initiatives ranging from prioritisation and design of Key Biodiversity Areas (KBA) and Alliance for Zero Extinction (AZE) sites, to community conservation zones and temple sanctuaries, and the development of policies for protecting inland and freshwater fish species, have been initiated in the region. Acknowledgements IUCN Freshwater Biodiversity Unit, Cambridge Zoo Outreach Organization, Coimbatore, India Keywords: Endemic, South Asia, Threatened species, Mahseer, Data deficient Conference: XVI European Congress of Ichthyology, Lausanne, Switzerland, 2 Sep - 6 Sep, 2019. Presentation Type: Plenary Invited Presentation Topic: THREATS AND CONSERVATION Citation: Raghavan R (2019). Conservation of freshwater fishes of the Western Ghats Hotspot, India. Front. Mar. Sci. Conference Abstract: XVI European Congress of Ichthyology. doi: 10.3389/conf.fmars.2019.07.00151 Copyright: The abstracts in this collection have not been subject to any Frontiers peer review or checks, and are not endorsed by Frontiers. They are made available through the Frontiers publishing platform as a service to conference organizers and presenters. The copyright in the individual abstracts is owned by the author of each abstract or his/her employer unless otherwise stated. Each abstract, as well as the collection of abstracts, are published under a Creative Commons CC-BY 4.0 (attribution) licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) and may thus be reproduced, translated, adapted and be the subject of derivative works provided the authors and Frontiers are attributed. For Frontiers’ terms and conditions please see https://www.frontiersin.org/legal/terms-and-conditions. Received: 30 Jun 2019; Published Online: 14 Aug 2019. * Correspondence: Dr. Rajeev Raghavan, Kerala University of Fisheries and Ocean Studies, Kochi, Kerala, 682506, India, rajeevraq@hotmail.com Login Required This action requires you to be registered with Frontiers and logged in. To register or login click here. Abstract Info Abstract The Authors in Frontiers Rajeev Raghavan Google Rajeev Raghavan Google Scholar Rajeev Raghavan PubMed Rajeev Raghavan Related Article in Frontiers Google Scholar PubMed Abstract Close Back to top Javascript is disabled. Please enable Javascript in your browser settings in order to see all the content on this page.