Project ID: GBPNI/NMHS-2017-18/MG-21

ANNUAL PROGRESS REPORT

OF THE PROJECT

ON

Assessment of Environmental Health and Ichthyofaunal Biodiversity of Tirap and Tissa rivers of and promotion of Fish centric supplementary livelihood options through a participatory approach

Submitted to: Nodal Officer, NMHS-PMU National Mission on Himalayan Studies (NMHS) G.B. Pant National Institute of Himalayan Environment and

Sustainable Development, Kosi-Katarmal, Almora 263643,

Submitted by:

Dr. Rajdeep Dutta Department of Aquatic Environment Management, College of Fisheries, Agricultural University, Raha, Nagaon-782 103

NMHS Progress Report

(Period from April, 2018 to January, 2019)

1. Project Information

Project ID: GBPNI/NMHS-2017-18/MG-21 Sanction Date: 26-02-2018

Assessment of Environmental Health and Ichthyofaunal Biodiversity of Tirap Project Title: and Tissa rivers of Arunachal Pradesh and promotion of Fish centric supplementary livelihood options through a participatory approach

BTG: Conservation and Sustainable Use of Biodiversity

PI and Dr. Rajdeep Dutta Affiliation Assistant Professor, Department of Aquatic Environment Management, (Institution): College of Fisheries, Assam Agricultural University, Raha, Nagaon-782 103

Dr. Sarada Kanta Bhagabati, Asst. Prof., Deptt. of AEM, College of Fisheries, AAU, Raha, Nagaon Dr. Krishna Kanta Tamuli, Professor, Deptt. of Aquaculture, College of Fisheries, AAU, Raha, Nagaon Name & Dr.Binod Kalita, Professor & Head, Deptt. of Aquaculture, College of Fisheries, Address AAU, Raha, Nagaon of the Co-PI: Mr.Phurin Songtheng, Subject Matter Specialist (Fisheries), Krishi Vigyan Kendra, , Deptt. of Agriculture, Govt. of Arunachal Pradesh, PO- , Arunachal Pradesh, Pin- 792129

Structured Recruitment of Project Staff: Two Junior Project Fellows (JPFs) were recruited Abstract- for carrying out the project activities in the month of May, 2018. detailing the Procurements: Procurement of Equipments, Chemicals, Glasswares, current year Plasticwares etc. are completed complying all necessary procedures. progress Initial Survey: As per the Sanction letter of the project, a preliminary survey of

river Tirap and Tissa was carried out in the month of June, 2018 for preparation of a baseline data report . The report was submitted to NMHS PMU.

Project Launch Workshop: All the stakeholders, co-PIs attended the launch workshop of the project held on 9th July, 2018 at College of Fisheries, AAU, Raha. A souvenir was also released on this occasion.

Assessment of ichthyofaunal diversity & molecular characterization: To study fish faunal diversity of river Tirap and Tissa, fish species collection was carried out from 5 sampling sites each of both the rivers in alternate months. A total number of 25 species have been collected so far from the selected sampling sites of river Tissa and Tirap. Of these,7 fish species collected from River Tissa are identified using standard keys and further confirmed with the help

of DNA barcoding technique. Mitochondrial COI gene sequences of 34 number of fish specimens from river Tissa were successfully submitted to NCBI. Identification and DNA barcoding work of fish specimens from river Tirap is going on.

Assessment of Environmental Health: Assessment of environmental health of river Tirap and Tissa is going on based on periodic monitoring of physico- chemical parameters (Temperature, Turbidity, pH, Water Velocity, DO, COD, Total Alkalinity, Total Hardness, TDS, Conductivity, Nutrients ) of river water samples collected from 5 sampling sites each of both the rivers.

Project Partner Affiliations Role & Responsibilities Name

Dr. Sarada Kanta Bhagabati Asst. Prof., Deptt. of AEM, Ichthyofaunal diversity assessment, College of Fisheries, AAU, Initial processing of DNA samples & Raha, Nagaon Evaluation of Environmental health of streams

Dr. Krishna Kanta Tamuli Professor, Deptt. of Development of model aquaculture Aquaculture, College of systems as proposed in the project Fisheries, AAU, Raha, Nagaon

Dr.Binod Kalita Dr.Binod Kalita, Professor & Development of model aquaculture Head, Deptt. of Aquaculture, systems, training & demonstration. College of Fisheries, AAU, Raha, Nagaon

Mr.Phurin Songtheng Subject Matter Specialist Sample collection, field surveys and (Fisheries), Krishi Vigyan local level management of the Kendra, Tirap district, Deptt. of project. Agriculture, Govt. of Arunachal Pradesh, PO- Deomali, Arunachal Pradesh, Pin- 792129

2. Project Site Details

River Tirap

Project Site Barap, Near Lazu Circle, Town Proper, Changlang Town Outskirts Tirap District (Hanging Bridge point), Changlang District IHR state Arunachal Pradesh Arunachal Pradesh Arunachal Pradesh covered Long. & lat. 26⁰52/35//N 27°8´10ʺ N 27°8´22ʺ N 95⁰31/36//E 95°44´14ʺ E 95°44´40ʺ E

Elevation:349m above MSL Elevation:1100m above Elevation: 332m above MSL

MSL Site Photograph

Project Site , Changlang District Old Khamdu Village, Changlang District

IHR state Arunachal Pradesh Arunachal Pradesh covered Long. & lat. 27°21´3.99ʺ N 27019.7070´N 96°0´56ʺ E 95058.3920´ E

Elevation: 191 m above MSL Elevation: 175 m above MSL Site Photograph

River Tissa

Project Site Tissa bridge point, Tupi village point, Nakfan village, Longding Longding district Tirap district district

IHR state Arunachal Pradesh Arunachal Pradesh Arunachal Pradesh covered Long. & lat. 26°54·5´ N 26°97´ N 27⁰5/N 95°21·8´ E 95°47´ E 95⁰34/E Elevation 750 m above Elevation 625 m above MSL MSL Elevation 162m above MSL Site Photograph

Project Site Naitong village, Otongkhua village, Longding district Longding district

IHR state covered Arunachal Pradesh Arunachal Pradesh Long. & lat. 27°03´26.7ʺ N 27°5.821´N 95°20´ 31ʺE 95°22.195´E

Elevation 150 m above Elevation 150 m above MSL MSL Site Photograph

3. Project Activities Chart w.r.t. Timeframe [Gantt or PERT]

Project Work undertaken Output activities

Year 2018-2019 Project Qtr-1 Qtr-2 Qtr-3 Qtr- Activity 1 4

JPFs recruited Project launch Routine sampling of workshop the project continued A souvenir of organized at for the months of Project Launch College of October, November Workshop Fisheries, AAU, and December, published Raha on 9th 2018 July, 2018

Project Procurements Most of the Assessment of Lab set up Activity 2 carried out. instruments of Environmental completed and the project health of Tirap & protocols were installed and Tissa rivers standardized routine continued for the sampling of the months of October, project initiated November and from the month December, 2018. of September, 2018.

Project Baseline survey Initial taxonomic 5 sampling Activity 3 of the rivers identification of stations each carried out in the collected from both the fish specimens the month of river selected. initiated. June, 2018 Preliminary Baseline survey DNA barcoding report. work started.

Seven fish species collected from River Tissa identified using standard keys and were further confirmed with the help of DNA barcoding technique. The

sequences were successfully submitted to NCBI and accession number acquired.

Project Environmental - Activity 4 health assessment of the rivers under study initiated.

4. Financial and Resource Information

Note: A separate bank account is expected to be opened for NMHS Project as per the provision of Direct Beneficiary Account (DBA) as laid out by the Govt. of and also facilitate the audit of accounts. The interest earned out of the NMHS project funds should be reported clearly in the utilization certificate.

Total Grant: 65,00,000.00 Grant Received Date: 19-04-2018

Project Affiliations/ Institution Budget Allocated to Work Done Partner(s)

College of Fisheries, Lead Assam Agricultural Assam Agricultural As per project plan Institute University,Raha ,Nagaon University Assam

Project Staff Information:

S. No. Name Qualification Designation Fellowship/ Wages paid Remarks

Dibyojyoti M.Sc. (Life 1. JPF 16000.00 Baruah Science)

Deepjyoti 2. M.F.Sc. JPF 16000.00 Bora

5. Equipment and Asset Information Sl. Equipment Name Details (Make/ Cost Date of Photographs Lowest No. (Qty) Model) Installation of Quotation, Equipment IF NOT purchased

1. Nano drop Genetix Brand 4,83,000.00 7/06/2018 Spectrophotometer Micridigital (One) Company/NABI UV/ Vis Nano Spectrophotometer 2. COD digester KEL PLUS 88,796.00 13/06/2018 (One) Automatic COD Digestion system//KES 08 L CAC Attached in Does not 3. Digital soil & water Systronics (India) 82,600.00 13/06/2018 Annexure IV arise testing kit (One) Limited/371 4. Current meter Raj Instrument 59,590.00 22/06/2018 (One)

5. Gradient Thermal Eppendrof Gradient 2,73,000.00 22/06/2018 cycler (One) Thermal Cycler/MasterCycler Nexus Gradient

6. Expenditure Statement and Utilization Certificate

Please update the annual Expenditure Statement and Utilization Certificate (UC) periodically.

Expenditure Information:

S. No. Financial Position/Budget Head Funds Sanctioned Expenditure % of Total cost

I Salary 3,84,000.00 2,65,802.00 69.22

II Travel( Domestic TA/DA) 1,75,000.00 1,51,955.00 86.83 III Consumables 4,00,000.00 3,88,398.00 97.09 IV Contingency 1,00,000.00 60,000.00 60 V Activities & Other Project cost 1,00,000.00 1,00,000.00 100 VI Institutional Charges - - - VII Equipments 12,73,520.00 11,01,563.00 86.49 24,32,520.00 20,67,718.00 85.00 Interest earned Grand Total

8. Project Progress Summary (as applicable to the project)

Description Total (Numeric) Description

IHR States Covered 01 Arunachal Pradesh

Photos & Maps attached Photographs of Sampling sites and map of study area attached (Annexure Project Site/ Field Stations Developed: I)

No. of Patents filed (Description): Nil Nil

Article/ Review/ Research Paper/ 02 (One Souvenir & One Project Launch Workshop th Research paper) Souvenir released on 9 July, Publication: 2018 Submitted a Research paper entitled “A preliminary assessment of Surface Water Quality of River Tirap in Arunachal Pradesh, India” for the NMHS National Seminar cum Monitoring Workshop, 2018

New Methods/ Modellings Developed Not Yet Nil

(description in 250 words):

No. of Trainings Not Yet Nil (No. of Beneficiaries):

Workshop: 1 Project launch workshop was organized at College of Fisheries, AAU, Raha on 9th July,2018 where all the stakeholders of the project were present.

Demonstration Models (Site): Not Yet Nil

Livelihood Options: Not Yet Nil

Training Manuals: Not Yet Nil

Processing Units: Not applicable Nil

Species Collection: 25 fish species

Species identified: 7 species Seven fish species collected from River Tissa are identified using standard keys. The specimens were further confirmed with the help of DNA barcoding technique and the sequences were successfully submitted to NCBI.

Database/ Images/ GIS Maps: Nil -

9. Project Linkages (with nearby Institutions/ State Agencies)

S. No. Institute/ Organization Type of Linkages Brief Description

1. Krishi Vigyan Kendra, Tirap Functional Linkage Assisting the lead district organization in local level management of the of the project 2. Department of Fisheries, Functional Linkage Assisting the lead Govt. of Arunachal Pradesh organization in local level management of the project

10. Additional (publication, recommendations, etc.)

Time Period Publications (Research Papers, Information Material, Policy drafts, Patents, etc.) Annual [Year ...... ] [Attach]

11. Project Concluding Remark

Kindly update the following Progress Parameters for the Reporting Period:

Objectives Output/Outcomes Monitoring Measurable against Objective indicators (as Deliverables (as specified in specified in Sanction Sanction Letter) Letter)

Assessment of 25 fish species have Voucher specimen Seven fish species been collected so far of the fish species collected from River ichthyofaunal from the selected maintained at Deptt. Tissa were identified biodiversity of Tirap sampling sites of river of AEM, College of using standard keys. and Tissa rivers of Tissa and Tirap. Fisheries, AAU, The specimens were Arunachal Pradesh to Raha. further confirmed with ascertain the the help of DNA conservation status of Preparation of barcoding technique. fishes conservation status Mitochondrial COI of fish faunal gene sequences of 34

diversity of the River number of fish is in progress. specimens from river Tissa were successfully submitted to NCBI and accession number acquired. Identification and DNA barcoding work of fish specimens from river Tirap is going on.

(AnnexureIII)

Evaluation of Assessment of Environmental Environmental health environmental health health assessment assessment work is in environmental health of river Tirap and work is in progress. progress. of the rivers to Tissa is going on determine the degree based on periodic of threat; monitoring of physico-chemical parameters (Temperature, Turbidity, pH, Water Velocity, DO, COD, Total Alkalinity, Total Hardness, TDS, Conductivity, Nutrients ) of river water samples collected from 5 sampling sites each of both the rivers. To promote fish Not yet initiated Not yet initiated Nil centric supplementary livelihood options for the people inhabiting near the rivers in order to reduce the fishing pressure on the rivers Methodology (in Fish Biodiversity Study: Fish specimens were collected using gill net, brief): cast net, traditional gears and electro fishing devices from selected sampling sites in alternate months. Fish species were identified using standard keys (Jayaram 1981&1999; Talwar & Jhingran, 1991; Vishwanath, 2014 and Kottelat, 2013). For molecular characterization of the collected fish species amplification and sequencing of Mitochondrial COI gene was carried out.

Environmental Health Assessment of the streams: A few parameters like Air temperature, Water temperature, Water velocity, Water pH, Dissolved Oxygen (DO), TDS, Conductivity, Turbidity were determined on the spot with the help of a Digital Water testing kit. While some other parameters like BOD, COD, Total Alkalinity, Total Hardness etc. were analysed in the laboratory as per standard protocol (APHA, 2005). Major Research Seven fish species collected from River Tissa were identified using Achievement: standard keys. The specimens were further confirmed with the help of DNA barcoding technique and the sequences were successfully submitted to NCBI and accession numbers received.

Brief Conclusion 1. A total number of 10 sampling sites (5each for both rivers) selected covering the entire stretch of the rivers based on altitude and topography. 2. Seven fish species collected from River Tissa identified using standard keys. The specimens were further confirmed with the help of DNA barcoding technique and the sequences were successfully submitted to NCBI.

3. Evaluation of environmental health of both the rivers is in progress.

Progress Achieved About 25%

Remaining work to be Biodiversity study of fish fauna and environmental health assessment done of the rivers will be continued. Awareness camps will be organized and model aquaculture systems will be developed as an alternative livelihood option to riverine fishing to achieve third objective of the project.

11. Next Reporting Period Plan & Projections

Activities to be undertaken in the 2nd Year (April. 2019 to March,2020)

Activities 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12

Assessment of Ichthyofaunal diversity Molecular characterization of ichthyofauna Evaluation of Environmental Health Awareness Camps Development of Model Aquaculture systems, Training & demonstration and Skill Development

Submitted to: Submitted by: Nodal Officer, NMHS-PMU Dr.Rajdeep Dutta National Mission on Himalayan Studies Assistant Professor GBPNIHESD, Kosi-Katarmal, Department of Aquatic Environment Management

Almora 263643, Uttarakhand College of Fisheries,

Assam Agricultural University, Raha-782 103

Signature

Annexure-I

Map of Study Area:

 5 sampling sites each from both the rivers selected to study the Environmental Health and fish faunal diversity.

Fig1. Map of river Tirap showing sampling sites

Fig2. Map of river Tissa showing sampling sites

Annexure-II

Initial observations of Environmental Health of River Tirap & Tissa:

Fig.3. Average value of Physico-chemical parameters of River Tirap

Fig.4. Average value of Physico-chemical parameters of River Tissa

Annexure-III

Initial results of Ichthyofaunal biodiversity study:  Fishes were collected using gill net, cast net and eco friendly electro fishing devices.Seven fish species collected from River Tissa identified using standard keys and were further confirmed with the help of DNA barcoding technique.

Barilius bendelisis Channa stewartii

Devario aequipinnatus Tor putitora

Acanthocobitis botia Garra annandalei

Neolissochilus hexastichus

SL No. Fish Species NCBI-Accession number

Acanthocobitis botia MK461184 1 Barilius bendelisis MK452226 2

Channa stewartii MK461185 3 Devario aequipinnatus MK452228 4

Garra annandalei MK452227 5

Annexure-IV

Laboratory Equipments Purchased in the Project:

Gradient Thermal cycler Nanodrop Spectrophotometer Digital water testing kit

COD Digester Current Meter

Annexure-V Glimpses of Project Activities:

Dignitaries inaugurating a Souvenir Project launch workshop during project launch workshop

Field sampling at River Tirap Sampling

Fish sample collection Field sampling