The fisheries sector in India plays a key role in the Indian economy, providing livelihood to more than 20 million fishers and fish farmers. The Gross Value Added (GVA) of the fisheries sector during 2018–2019 was INR 2,12,915 crores and constituted 1.24% of the total National GVA and 7.28% share of Agricultural GVA. The annual growth rate of 10.88% was achieved during the years 2014–15 to 2018–19. The fish production reached at an all-time high of 13.758 million metric tons during 2018–19. The major fishery resource originates from rivers (29 000 km) followed by reservoirs, ponds, floodplain wetlands, and tanks.Climatic variability and events have intensified in India during the last few decades. This has resulted in frequent cyclones, storms, hurricanes, floods, heatwaves, and untimely monsoons, resulting in climatic disasters. The addition of these unusual climatic events to the increasing anthropogenic stressors would further complicate the dynamics and sustainability of inland fisheries resource especially inland open water resources. These fisheries resources are important for nutrition, employment, income generation, livelihood of fishers contributing >6% of the world's annual animal protein supplies.Tropical inland open water fisheries in India are also vulnerable to overfishing, pollution, biodiversity loss, invasive species and habitat destruction in addition to climate change. Major impacts on inland open waters include change in base flow, altered hydrology, thermal stress to aquatic flora and fauna, extended range and increased occurrence of extreme events, habitat degradation, alteration in breeding and spawning behavior, and life history traits, leading to adverse consequence on aquatic biodiversity and fisheries. This may consequently have more of an impact on the subsistence fishers—their income and livelihood.A detailed publication dealing with the impact of these uncertainties on inland fisheries is not available covering the whole of India. Recent approaches emphasizing ecosystem based management in a regional context specific to inland fisheries for combating climatic changes is either preliminary or lacking so far. In this connection, ICAR-Central Inland Fisheries Research Institute (CIFRI), India has undertaken research under a multi-institutional research project, National Innovations for Climate Resilient Agriculture. Considering the lack of compiled comprehensive information on various aspects of climate change and inland fisheries, the institute has taken the lead in exploring and perusing research during the last decade and fortunately significant progress has been made in this direction.This special issue on climate change and the inland fisheries of India (Fig. 1) is being published due to the active collaboration of CIFRI and Aquatic Ecosystem Health and Management Society (AEHMS) and originated from the Pantnagar conference on Inland waters (February 2020). The present issue includes 9 research papers on climate change, which have been categorized in to two groups covering a variety of topics representing the current status of advances and development of climate smart inland fisheries in India:Research advances in climate and environmental change impacts on inland fisheries of India: Status, vulnerability, and mitigation strategiesInvasion meltdown and burgeoning threats of invasive fish species in inland waters of India in the era of climate changeImpacts of climate change and adaptations in shrimp aquaculture: A study in coastal Andhra Pradesh, IndiaAnalysis of constraints faced by fish seed producers of Lower Brahmaputra Valley Zone, Assam, India because of extreme climatic events and adaptive strategiesFloodplain wetlands of eastern India in a changing climate: Trophic characterization, ecological status, and implications for fisheriesEcosystem vulnerability of floodplain wetlands of the Lower Brahmaputra Valley, India, to climatic and anthropogenic factorsDynamics of river flows towards sustaining floodplain wetland fisheries under climate change: A case studyEnhancing adaptive capacity of wetland fishers through pen culture in the face of a changing climate: A case study from a tropical wetland, IndiaImpact of climate change-induced challenges on fisheries in the North Eastern Region of India, and the way aheadWe hope that this special issue, being first if its kind about India, will enhance our understanding about ecosystem changes due to climate change and its implications on inland fisheries of India (Fig. 2) and the vicinity as well as potential adaptation and mitigation strategies which will be a great help to researchers, managers, students, fishers, planners and policy makers. We take this opportunity to thank the organizers of the Inland water conference in Pantnagar, Utterkhand, namely G.B. Pant University of Agriculture, & Technology, ICAR-CIFRI, and AEHMS (Canada) for convening the conference and providing the opportunity which resulted in the publication of this issue. Thanks are due to Dr. A.P. Sharma for including the climate change session in the program. We are grateful to Dr. Ken Minns, Scientist Emeritus, Fisheries & Oceans Canada for contributing a thoughtful foreword for the special issue. We greatly appreciate the extensive assistance of the technical committee namely, J. Lorimer, M. Holmes and S. Blunt for processing and technical editing of the papers.
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Mar 24, 2024
Jennifer C Mallette 
Open Access