| Ziro valley is a beautiful valley lies in an altitude of 1573 m which is bordered by the Upper Subansiri District in the north east, East Kameng in the west, Tibet and China in the north and Assam in the south east. The exact topographic feature of this area is that, it is surrounded by the hills and ranges in all direction and in the middle of the valley a small river ‘Keley’ which flows from north to south along with its tributaries supplies sufficient water to the rice cultivation of the local people called ‘Apatanis’. ‘Swkhe’ stream, a tributary of Keley River in Hong village joins with another stream that flow into Keley River harbours a good number of fish species most of which have high economic and food value. These fishes sometimes migrate through irrigation water, rain water into the paddy fields and thereafter grow in the nearby paddy fields. The present study of fish diversity of Swkhe stream of Ziro valley revealed17 species of fish under 14 different genera, 3 families and 2 orders. Cyprinidae was the most dominant family with 14 different species. Chana was recorded to be the most dominant genera with 3 different species.Species like Aborichthyskempi, Neolissocheilus hexagonolep is are near threatened. Documentations of Neolissocheilus hexagonolep is only once during the survey period depicts its urgent conservation in this part of Arunachal Pradesh. Moreover a detail investigation in the future may have the possibility of adding great number of fish species that are waiting to be introduced into ichthyofaunal list of the world.
Keywords: Ichthyofaunal diversity, Swkhestream, paddy cum fish culture, Apatani tribe, Ziro valley, Arunachal Pradesh.
|