CARP BIODIVERSITY STATUS ON HALDA RIVER

Abstract

The Halda River of Bangladesh has immense importance as it is the only natural spawning ground of Indian major carp species. The study was conducted for a period of 12 months from July 2013 to June 2014 in Halda river at Garduara point in Chittagong districts of Bangladesh. Garduara point at the mouth of Boalia and Chengkhali

tributary of Halda river was selected by taking into consideration that the site will give shelter a large number of fishes because it is the conjoined area where the Halda river meets with Boalia and Cheng khali tributary. Sampling was done during full and new moon for two successive days in each month. A total of 53 fish species belonging to 18 families were identified. But the concerning fact was carp species of the Halda river at Garduara point and 15 species were identified. Among them 5 were Not Threatened (NT), 2 Vulnerable (VU), 5 Endangered (EN) and 3 Exotic (EX). The Shannon-Weaver diversity index (H') ranged from 1.72 (in July) to 2.13 (in January), tiniest Margalef richness index was witnessed in November/December (1.05), while utmost value observed in July (1.22), peak mean evenness value (0.79) was encountered in January and bottommost (0.63) in July and the uppermost mean dominance value (0.85) was observed in January and lowest (0.7) in July. The Shannon-Weaver and Pielou’s index was found to be significant among the seasons at 0.05% significance level. But the Margalef and Simpson index was not significant among the seasons. The carp species of Halda river at Garduara point found to be not evenly distributed. Among the Indian major carps encountered in the study area, Catla catla found to be comprised 4.78% of the total biomass followed by Cirrhinus cirrhosus 5.74%, Labeo rohita 4.95% and Labeo calbasu 0.66%. The Halda river is used as breeding, nursing and feeding ground by many fishes. So the proper management of this river is suggested.