Fish Diversity of Bagmati River, Sarlahi, Nepal

Abstract

The present work deals with” Fish diversity of Bagmati River, Sarlahi, Nepal”. The Bagmati river flows in the Central Terai region of Sarlahi and Rautahat districts of Nepal. The study was focused on the fish diversity and physico-chemical parameter. The data was collected through selecting the sampling site and the field was visited on winter, spring and summer seasons. The physico-chemical parameters of the water was analyzed by using different tools and technique. The fish sampling was performed by local fishermen used for the design of Cast net and local nets. The socio-economic conditions of the fishermen were observed by interviewing local fishermen. The work recorded a total of 16 fish species belonging to 7 orders, 9 families and 12 genera. The fish were collected from 12 species in Rajghat, 13 species from Manpur and 12 species Khairwa. The Cyprinidae (55.85%) family showed commonly found in Bagmati river but Belonidae (2.25%) family was a lowest number of fish. The water quality parameters, i.e., water temperature (12.6-22.1 0 C), DO (5.67-6.89 mg/l) and pH (7.1-8.0) were found within the suitable range supporting diverse fish species physico-chemical parameters. The correlation coefficient in water temperature 0.941, 0.475 & 0.612, water depth 0.374, 0.343 & -0.881, transparency -0.965, 0.914& 0.622, and water velocity is 0.714, 0.831 & 0.583 and Chemical parameters were pH is 0.720. -0.992 & 0.913, DO is -0.592, 0.223 & 0.410 and Free CO 2 0.584, 0.494 & -0.842. The highest Shannon Wiener diversity index was found in station II (2.49) and lowest value was found in station II (2.38). The maximum richness value was observed at (12.77) station II where minimum value was observed at (11.76) station I. Evenness index was found to be highest at station II (0.97) and lowest at station I (0.95). It has been observed that the fish population is deteriorating day by day due to various factors such as electric fishing, the killing of brood fishing during spawning season and also by heavy flooding, damming and unsuitable environment of the fish composition. The present study has been perform to offer a baseline report for the fish diversity in Bagmati river.