Diversity and Distribution Pattern of Fish Fauna of River Jhelum, Kashmir Himalayas

Ichthyofauna form an integral part of aquatic ecosystems and any physiochemical variation taking place in the medium can affect their productivity, diversity, distribution and behavior. In the present study (15 March 2020 to 14 March 2021), five sites were selected for sampling viz. Site-I (Zaldora), Site-II (Ashajipora) and Site-III (Bijbehara), Site IV (Dogripora) and Site V (Kursu Padshahi Bagh). A total of nine species of fishes viz., Schizothorax plagiostomus (Heckel 1838), Schizothorax esocinus (Heckel 1838), Schizothorax labiatus (McClelland 1842), Schizothorax curvifrons (Heckel 1838), Crossocheilus diplochilus (Heckel 1838), Glyptosteron reticulatum McClelland, 1842, Cyprinus carpio communis Linnaeus, 1758, Triplophysa marmorata (Heckel, 1838), Triplophysa kashmirensis (Hora, 1922) were collected. Among these nine species s. palgiostoms was found most dominant. Our results indicate that the fish fauna of the river Jhelum has declined over a period of time indicating some stress or abnormal external influences which are altering the health of this vital economic-ecologic lotic water body. Thus in order to conserve the fish diversity in this riverine ecosystem, it is imperative that monitoring should be carried out on regular basis and immediate steps should be undertaken to conservation ecology.