Fresh Water Fish Species Diversity in Matatila Reservoir Bundelkhand Region, District Jhansi U.P., India.

Introduction

Bundelkhand region is considered lobe a premier region of the country, because it has a number of small and large water bodies, reservoirs and two rivers which provided better fisheries and aquaculture prospects. All these water bodies, reservoirs and rivers are rich in fish fauna. Fish farming and fish industry are one of the biggest and fastest growing industries in India. These are large number of fishes which are economically important and useful for millions of human beings who depend on their rich proteinous food, oil and medicines.

The constitution of Matatila reservoir on Betwa river started in the year 1952 and completed 1n 1958. The Matatila reservoir is a shallow man-made reservoir located 69 km away from Jhansi. The earthen reservoir is 45.72 M high. The catchement area is around 20 km² a maximum storage capacity of 1132 million cubic meters. The Matatila Reservoir in district, Jhansi Bundelkhand region has been extensively used for drinking, irrigation, fish culture and generating electric light.

Matatila reservoir lies between latitude 25^o5^’53.7” (25.0982^o) North and longitude 78^o22’22.9” (78.373^o) East. The climate of Matatila reservoir is very hot in summer season and some time temperature rises up to 50^o during summer season and very cold during winter season. There is monsoon rains in summer season only. The average rainfall in Jhansi is recorded at 35-40 cm. The climate is dry in rest of the year.

Material and Methods

The fishes for the present investigation has been collected from the Matatila reservoir by operating cast nets and drag nets every week of the each month and also collected with the help of fisher man during the study. The specimens were brought to laboratory for preservation with 5% formalin solution. They were then identified with the help of standered keys and books according to Srivastava (1980), Mishra (1956) and Day (1875-78), (1958).

Result and Discussion

The nutritional and medicinal value of fishes has already been recognized by Hora and Pilay, 1962; Mishra, 1996. The fish diversity of Yashwant Sager Reservoir, Indore (MP) has been reported by Sharma et al., 2004 and Jhingran, 1982. The fish fauna of Sanjay Sager Reservoir of district Guna (MP) has recognized by Solanki et al., 2011. Diversity of fish fauna from Thodaga Reservoir was studied by Munde et al., 2006. The diversity of Ichthyofauna, taxonomy and fisheries from water of Parbhan, district studied by Ahirro et al., 2000.The fish fauna of Mod Sager Reservoir of Jhabua district has been reported by Dhakad et al., 2008. Fish species diversity in Yashwant Sager studied by Razia et al., 2010. Fish diversity of Gobind Sager Dam of district Lalitpur studied by Vijay Kumar et al., 2014.The author agreed with previous worker, who worked on this topic.

A total of 27 species were identifies which belonged to 6 orders 9 families and 2 divisions viz. Cypriniformes, Siluriformes, Mastacembelliformes, Ophiocephaliformes, Perciformes and Notopterideformes. Fishes of order Cypriniformes dominated species type of both Major and Minor group with 12 species under one family cyprinidae of genus Labeo is abundant with 4 species along with genus Cirrhinus with 2 species Puntius also with 2 species. Catla, Cyprinus, Exomus and Oxygaster genus were also identified. It was followed by Ophiocephaliformes with 3 species of genus Channa. Four families of order Siluriformes were identified of which 2 species of Siluridae family belonging to genus Ompok and Wallago, 3 species of Bagridae family belonging to genus Mystus and Rita. Heteropheustidae family of same order with 1 species and 2 species of Schilbeidae family were also identified. Family Mastacembelliformes and Perciformes were also identified, of which 1 species of Mastacembellidae family belonging to genus Mastacembellus and 1 species of Centopomidae family belonging to Genus Chanda. Besides Notopeteridae family of order Notopterideformes was observed with 2 species of genus Notopterus. Thus overall Major carps dominated the reservoir followed by cat fishes and minor carps. Due to the greater fecundity of major carps and suitable environmental condition there exits relatively higher number of Cypriniformes. The biodiversity status of some of the species was identified.

Acknowledgement

The author was very thankful Ret. Sr. Lecturer Dr. S. F. Siddiqui of Bipin Bihari College Jhansi for her valuable aid and direction in preparation of the manuscript.

Table 1: The observation of fish diversity in Matatila Reservoir.

References    

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