Fish Fauna of North East India with Special Reference to Endemic and Threatened Species
Rec. zool. Surv. India: 101 (Part 3-4) : 81-99,2003 FISH FAUNA OF NORTH EAST INDIA WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO ENDEMIC AND THREATENED SPECIES NmEDITA SEN Eastern Regional Station, Zoological Survey of India, Shillong-793 003 INTRODUCTION North Easr India with it's sister states have unique topography, varied watershed pattern and physiography. The area is enriched with diversified fish fauna. A perusal of literature reveals that the area is blessed with 291 species under I 19 genera, 38 families and 12 orders (Hora, 1921 a, 1921b, 1936; Jayaram 1963, 1999; Malhotra and Suri, 1969; Sen, 1977, 1995, 1999a, 1999b; Bannan, 1984, 1992, 1994; Sen, 1985; S~gh & Singh, 1985; Vishwanath & Singh, 1986; Datta, Bannan & Jayaram, 1987; Talwar & Jhingran, 1991; Bhagowati & Biswas 1992; Vishwanath, 1993; Sen & Biswas, 1994; Nath & Dey, 1-997;· Keishing & Vishwanath, 1998, 1999; Kumar & Singh, 1998; Vishwanath et al. 1998; Vi &hwanath & Kosygin, 1999, 2000a, 2000b, 2001; Arunkumar, 2000a, 2000b; Arunkumar & Singh, 2000; Menon et al. 2000). The recorded and reported species along with their distribution in different States of N. E. India, status, type locality and endemicity have been shown in Table 1. Controversy is there regarding total number of species occurring in North East India. Regarding endemic species also differences of opinion persist. Sen (1985) identified 48 species to be endemic to Assam and neighbouring North Eastern States. Sarkar and Ponniah (2000) reported 66 species endemic to this region. Ghosh and Lipton (1982) reported 33 species as restricted in their distribution to this region. The present paper is worked out to get a total picture of the fish species recorded and reported so far from this region, as well as the endemic and threatened species occurring in N.
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