Endemic Fish Diversity of Western Ghats Edited by A.G. Ponniah A. Gopa\akrishnan 2000 I:;' ~ 'fi q ...,., National Bureau of Fish Genetic Resources Canal Ring Road. P.O. Dilkusha, Lucknow - 226 002. V.P .. India 'ii' 0522-~·n~~o , ~~24~1 , ~~2~·B: Fax : 0522-~~2~03 e-mail: [email protected] -, Fish Fauna of the Chaliyar River, North Kerala R. S. Lal Mohall and K. Rema Devi* COlIser\'{/tioll of Natllre Trllst , 43-C, lVater Tallk Road, Nagereoil-629 001, Tamil Nadll 'Zoological Survey of Illdia, 100 Sallthome High Road, Chellllai-600 028, Tamil Nadu Lal Mohan. R.S. and Rema Dev i. K.. 2000. Fish fauna of the Chaliyar Ri ve r. North Kerala. pp. 155-156. III : Ponniah. A.G. and Gopalakrishnan, A. (Eds. ). Endemic Fish DI ver­ si ty of Western Ghats. ~BFGR - NATP Publi cation - I. 3-l- 7 p. National Bureau of Fish Genetic Re source s. Lucknow. U.Po, India. The Chaliyar ri ve r is one of the west fiowing rivers of Weslern Ghats 10- ealed north latitude 11 0 19' N. longitude 75 0 51' E. It has many tributaries such as Karimpuzha. Punnappuzha, Kuru vanpuzha, TirUl'anchipuzha, Cherupuzha. etc. with a catch ment area of 1535 sq. km. The total discharge of the river is 7775 3 Mm , The river which was in a pristine condition before 4 to 5 decades ha s become highly degraded in the lower stretches by the effluents of Gwalior Rayons and in the upper stretches by various anthropogenic factors like deforestation. hi gh siltation. dynamite fi shing and use of copper sul phate for fishing. During the summer months. the water in the ri ver is ve ry low due to high run off during th e wet months. Further. a few dams proposed in the upstream will surely deal a death blow to the ecology of the river basin. It is essent ial that a holistic study is undertaken before we plan any project to utilize the water resources of the ri ver. During the period 1994 to 1997. five collection trips were made to the river Karimpuzh a during the rainy season (July-August) and the dry season (March­ April), Vel on sc reen of length 3 m. 5 m and 10 m were used 10 collect the fishes. In addition. traps made of earthern pots. the mouth covered wi th cloth having a hole in the centre were also used. Such pots wi th prawn heads and 'aua' were kept over night in the deeper areas to co ll ect fishes. The fishes were preserved in formalin for further studies. A few ornamental and aquarium fishes like PlIllliliS me/al/ampyx, PUlllius punclm lls , Garra mill/yo, Maslacembellis armatllS. etc. were transported to the Ca licut Aquarium fo r behaviour studies. It was observed that many specimens of PIIII,iIlS species were in fected by ep izootic ulcerative syndrome (E. U.S. ) and mortality of these fishes were also observed during the dry months. The identified 155 Elldemic Fish diversity oj Western Ghats fishes were deposited in the Reference Collection Museum of the Zoological Sur­ vey of India. The fo ll owing species IVere collected during the study: Chela Jasciata Silas -. F.5305 Barilius gatellsis (Val)- F.5308 Dallia malabaricus (Jerdon)- F.4729. F.4730. F.5307 Puntius jilamentosus (Val) - F.5310 Rasbara dallieollius (Ham) - F.4527. F.4730. F.5307 PUlltius melallampyx Day - F.4529. F.4731. F.53JJ Puntills PUllctatus Day - FA53 Jd. F.5309 Garro gotvla stenorhYllehlls (Jerdon) . F.4732 Garra //luI/yo (Sykes) -FA533. F.53 J 2. 156 .