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Fish Diversity Associated with Environmental Parameters in Impacted Area of Ganga River, India

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Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, India Section B: Biological Sciences Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

This study aimed to investigate the fish diversity in relation to environmental parameters in the mining-impacted area of the Ganga River in India. Four zones, i.e. Zone A, Zone B, Zone C and Zone D, were selected for the targeted study, viz. Bairaagi camp, Shyampur Kangri, Bisanpur village and Bhogpur village. Zone A was a non-mining area and hence termed as reference zone, while the remaining zones were areas where river bed mining was carried out. Sampling was carried out twice a month for environmental parameters and once a month for fishes. Overall sixteen environmental parameters were studied and analysed using one-way ANOVA. A total of 5299 individuals associated with 13 families were collected and analysed using two indices, namely the Shannon–Wiener diversity index (H′) and total number of individuals. In addition, canonical correspondence analysis revealed that selected environmental parameters such as water velocity, water temperature, water depth, boulders, sand, gravel, turbidity and dissolved oxygen had significant relationships with fish assemblage. The result showed that more fish were found in the non-mining-impacted zones than in the mining-impacted zones. However, it was found that mining of river bed materials disturbed the environmental parameters and this has affected the fish community.

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Abbreviations

WV:

Water velocity

D :

Depth

W :

Width

Bou:

Boulders

Cob:

Cobbles

Peb:

Pebbles

Gra:

Gravel

EC:

Electrical conductivity

WT:

Water temperature

T :

Turbidity

TDS:

Total dissolved solids

DO:

dissolved oxygen

BOD:

Biochemical oxygen demand

S :

Salinity

F1:

Barilius barna

F2:

Barilius bendelisis

F3:

Barilius tielo

F4:

Barilius vagra

F5:

Chagunius Chagunio

F6:

Cirrhinus mrigala

F7:

Crossocheilus latius latius

F8:

Cyprinus carpio

F9:

Garra gotyla gotyla

F10:

Labeo bata

F11:

Labeo rohita

F12:

Puntius phutunio

F13:

Puntius sophore

F14:

Puntius ticto

F15:

Raiamas bola

F16:

Tor tor

F17:

Botia almorhae

F18:

Botia Dario

F19:

Nemacheilus beavani

F20:

Nemacheilus montanus

F21:

Nemacheilus multifasciata

F22:

Nemacheilus rupicola

F23:

Nemacheilus zonata

F24:

Xenentodon cancila

F25:

Wallago attu

F26:

Bagarius bagarius

F27:

Glyptothorax cavia

F28:

Pseudecheneis sulcata

F29:

Mystus seenghala

F30:

Rita rita

F31:

Heteropneustes fossilis

F32:

Clupisoma garua

F33:

Clarias batrachus

F34:

Channa striata

F35:

Chanda nama

F36:

Amblyceps mangois

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Acknowledgements

The authors are highly grateful to the Department of Zoology and Environmental Science, Gurukula Kangri (Deemed to be University), Haridwar, India, for providing infrastructural facilities.

Funding

This work is financially supported by the Department of Science and Technology (DST), New Delhi, India, through INSPIRE programme grant number IF160805.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Zoology and Environmental Science, Gurukula Kangri Vishwavidyalaya, Haridwar, 249404, India

    Vishal Kamboj, Nitin Kamboj, Amit Kumar Sharma & Aditi Bisht

Authors
  1. Vishal Kamboj
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  2. Nitin Kamboj
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  3. Amit Kumar Sharma
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  4. Aditi Bisht
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Contributions

VK was involved in the study design, data collection, manuscript preparation and statistical analysis. NK contributed to the supervision and writing—review and editing. AKS helped in the identification of fish species, data collection and interpretation. AB contributed to the manuscript writing and investigation and reviewing.

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Correspondence to Nitin Kamboj.

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The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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Signifiance Statement

During the last two decades, a tremendous increase in river bed mining has been observed in the River Ganga in the vicinity of district Haridwar, India. Hence, the current study focuses on the assessment of fish population structure in relation to environmental parameters in the mining-affected area of River Ganga. It provides basic data for the conservation of fish stocks in the affected area.

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Kamboj, V., Kamboj, N., Sharma, A.K. et al. Fish Diversity Associated with Environmental Parameters in Impacted Area of Ganga River, India. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci., India, Sect. B Biol. Sci. 93, 79–90 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40011-022-01393-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40011-022-01393-9

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