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A checklist of freshwater fishes
of the New Amarambalam Reserve Forest (NARF), Kerala, India
Fibin Baby1, Josin Tharian1,2, Anvar
Ali1 & Rajeev Raghavan1, 3
1 Conservation
Research Group (CRG), St. Albert’s College, Cochin, Kerala 682018, India
2 Department of
Zoology and Environmental Sciences, St. John’s College, Anchal, Kerala 691306,
India
3 Durrell Institute
of Conservation and Ecology (DICE), University of Kent, Canterbury CT2 7NR,
United Kingdom
Email: 3 rajeevraq@hotmail.com(corresponding author)
Date of publication (online): 26 November 2010
Date of publication (print): 26 November 2010
ISSN 0974-7907 (online) | 0974-7893 (print)
Editor:K. Rema Devi
Manuscript
details:
Ms # o2497
Received 30 June 2010
Final received 07 November 2010
Finally accepted 09 November 2010
Citation:Baby, F., J. Tharian, A. Ali & R. Raghavan (2010). A checklist of
freshwater fishes of the New Amarambalam Reserve Forest (NARF), Kerala, India. Journal of Threatened Taxa2(12): 1330-1333.
Copyright: ©
Fibin Baby, Josin Tharian, Anvar Ali & Rajeev Raghavan 2010. Creative
Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License. JoTT allows unrestricted use of this
article in any medium for non-profit purposes, reproduction and distribution by
providing adequate credit to the authors and the source of publication.
Acknowledgements: Funding for the
study came from the Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund (CEPF) Western Ghats
Program through the Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and Environment
(ATREE), Bengaluru, India. The authors thank K.K. Srivastava IFS (Chief
Wildllife Warden, Government of Kerala) for permits, and Unnikrishnan
(DFO-Nilambur) and V.P. Jayaprakash (Range Office-Karulai, Nilambur) for
logistics in the field. The unstinted cooperation and support of Simmy Solmon,
Shylaja Menon and Ratheesh, Conservation Research Group, St. Albert’s College,
Kochi is gratefully acknowledged.
This article forms part of a
special series on the Western Ghats of India, disseminating the results of work
supported by the Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund (CEPF), a joint initiative
of l’Agence Française de Développement, Conservation International, the Global
Environment Facility, the Government of Japan, the MacArthur Foundation and the
World Bank. A fundamental goal of CEPF is to ensure civil society is engaged in
biodiversity conservation. Implementation of the CEPF investment program in the
Western Ghats is led and coordinated by the Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology
and the Environment (ATREE).
For figure, table -- click here
The New Amarambalam Reserve Forest (NARF) (11014’-11024’N
& 76019’-76033’E) covering an area of 265km2borders the Silent Valley National Park (Kerala State) and thae Mukurthi
National Park (Tamil Nadu State), and forms the core area of the Nilgiri
Biosphere Reserve - an international biosphere reserve in the Western Ghats hotspot. NARF contains relatively unexploited
natural evergreen and semi evergreen forests (Mathew & Binoy 2002), as well
as natural moist deciduous forest, teak and multi-species plantations
(Kumar & Yoganand 1999). NARF is an Important Bird Area (IBA) (Bird Life International 2009) and
also harbours threatened and endemic mammals such as the Nilgiri Tahr (Abraham
et al. 2006).
NARF is drained by the river Chaliyar and its
tributaries, Karimpuzha, Panapuzha, Manjakallanpuzha, Talipuzha and the
Arikkayampuzha, forming a wide array of riverine microhabitats from cascades to
riffles and pools. Although there
have been limited studies on the fish fauna of Chaliyar (Lalmohan & Devi
2000) and the Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve (Easa & Basha 1995; Easa &
Shaji 1997), there is no information on the freshwater fish diversity of the
NARF. As part of a larger project
that is aimed at generating baseline data on the fish fauna of lesser known
areas in the Kerala part of Western Ghats (CEPF-ATREE 2010), we carried out a
survey of the fish species diversity in the NARF during April-May 2010. This contribution provides a checklist
of the freshwater fish fauna of the NARF with notes on their threats and
conservation needs.
We used a rapid assessment approach (Abd et
al. 2009) as it was the most practical approach in terms of costs and
logistics. Dawn
(0500-0800 hr), dusk (1730-1930 hr), daytime (0800-1730 hr) and night
(1930-0500 hr) sampling were carried out at fixed sites in the various
tributaries draining the NARF including Karimpuzha (at Nedumkayam and
Maanchery), Paanapuzha, Manjakkalanpuzha and Talipuzha (Fig. 1). Although electrofishing (using a
backpack electroshocker) was the primary technique used for fish collection, we
also employed a diverse array of active as well as passive gears including cast
net, scoop net, drag net, gill net and traps. This was mainly because of the fact
that electrofishing is considered to be the most effective sampling method for
stream fishes, especially when sampling species at risk (Poos et al.
2007). The other gears were used
so as to avoid sampling bias in specific habitats (for example - torrential
stream reaches and cascades) where electrofishing was not possible. The use of an electroshocker also meant
that we only collected minimum number of specimens as required for our study (especially threatened and restricted range endemics)
and others were let off into the waters. Species level identification was carried out
following Jayaram (1999) and Talwar & Jhingaran (1991) and species names
adhere to the CAS - Catalog of Fishes (Eschmeyer 2010).
We collected 43 species of freshwater fish
belonging to 13 families and 28 genera (Table 1) from various tributaries of
Chaliyar River, draining the NARF. Family Cyprinidae dominated with 20 species followed by Balitoridae and
Bagridae (four species each). Of
the 43 species collected, 20 species (46.51%) were endemic to the Western Ghats
hotspot with one species (Laubuca
fasciata) strictly endemic to the Kerala region.
Among the various tributaries of Chalakudy
draining the NARF, Karimpuzha had the highest species diversity (S = 39)
followed by Talipuzha (S = 25) and Panapuzha (S = 19). Two locations in the Karimpuzha tributary,
Nedumkayam and Maanchery have been previously explored for their fish diversity
(Easa & Basha 1995). During
their survey, Easa & Basha (1995) collected nine species from Nedumkayam
area, whereas in the present study we could collect 29 species - an addition of
20 species. Two species recorded
by Easa and Basha (1995) could not be collected by us in the course of the
present survey. These were Channa orientalis,
(which is a misidentification as this species is endemic to Sri Lanka) and Schismatogobius deraniyagalai. We collected 26 species
from Maanchery, an addition of 11 species compared to the records of Easa &
Basha (1995) from the same locality. Deccan Mahseer Tor
khudree recorded by Easa & Basha (1995) could not be
collected by us; we believe that the Mahseer species recorded by them was in
fact Tor malabaricusand not T. khudree,
as the identities of both these species were unclear, and only very recently
confirmed (Silas et al. 2005). As
there is no previous information on the fish diversity of the remaining
tributaries of Chaliyar inside the NARF including Paanapuzha, Manjakkalanpuzha
and Talipuzha, a comparison becomes difficult.
The fish diversity in NARF is high compared
to various protected areas in the Nilgiri landscape such as Wyanad Wildlife
Sanctuary (S = 34) and Silent Valley National Park (S = 19) in Kerala (Biju
2005) and the Mudumalai Wildlife Sanctuary (S = 38) in Tamil Nadu (Manimekalan
1998). NARF
harbours higher freshwater fish species diversity than in protected areas of
northern Kerala (north of Palakkad gap). The number of species recorded in our current study (S = 43)
is higher than those recorded from Aralam Wildlife Sanctuary, Kannur (S = 38),
which was till date considered to be the protected area in northern
Kerala with the highest fish species diversity (Biju 2005).
The streams inside NARF especially the
Karimpuzha tributary needs to be designated as a priority area for freshwater
fish conservation. Maanchery (and
the nearby Mayiladipotty (11.304N
& 76.423E; 203m)), located in the Karimpuzha tributary need
to be selected for long term protection and monitoring of fish diversity, as it
harbours good population of two very important endemic species, Tor malabaricus and Glyptothorax annandalei. The absence of human habitation along
the banks of this tributary except for settlements of the Cholanaicker and
Kaatunaicker tribes means that there is no organized and large scale
exploitation of these fishes. However, the fishing techniques used by these tribes are mainly
destructive in nature and causes large scale mortality to the entire aquatic
fauna present in the vicinity including fish, molluscs, crustaceans and
insects. The most common
destructive fishing techniques practices by the tribes include poisoning using
leaves, barks and fruits of several trees such as Acacia torta, Randia brandisii and Zyzigium caryophyllaeum. There are also reports of fishing using
dynamite by non-tribal communities residing along the fringes of the NARF
(Anonymous 2009). There is hence
an urgent need to create awareness among local communities including tribes on
the importance of the stream habitat and its fish fauna, and the need to
conserve them for future generations.
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