Fish Diversity of Kali Gandaki River, Bharatipur VDC, Nawalparasi, Nepal

Abstract

The Kali Gandaki River had a good habitat to support several freshwater fishes. A total of 17 Fish species have been collected belonging to 4 orders, 7 Families and 12 genera. Common fishes were Barilius barila, Barilius bendelisis, Garra annandalei and Pseudecheneis eddsi species. While the fishes like Tor putitora and Channa orientalis were rarely caught. Cyprinidae family remained dominant throughout the study period. The distribution and composition of the fishes depended upon the physiochemical parameters. The fishes were not found uniformly distributed in the river, it might be due to variation in temperature, depth, transparency, pH, DO, free CO2, hardness, etc. of water. However no significant difference in the diversity composition was obtained during the investigation period; rather the composition of fish species was the seasonal phenomenon. The study showed the decline in density and species richness of fishes; which might be due to illegal fishing, pollution and habitat destruction etc.

Key words: Diversity, Illegal fishing, Degrading, Habitat destruction.