STUDY OF THE FISH BIODIVERSITY AND ASSOCIATED ASPECTS IN SELECTED SHOLA FOREST REGIONS OF KERALA

Funding Agency: Kerala Forest and Wild Life Department

The term “Chola” was used interchangeably to refer to both “streamlet” and “forest associated with streamlets”. It is the vegetal clothing on streams and valleys. Shola forests are high altitude gallery forests restricted to valleys, depressions and especially along folds of hills and watercourses. These forests are of high ecological significance in protecting the headwaters of rivers. They also help in retaining soil moisture and very slow release of rainwater. The present study was aimed to explore an inventory of the cold-water fishes of high altitude shola forests and the upper catchment areas of some of the major rivers in the State. The main objectives were to study the hydrobiology of selected shola forest regions in Kerala with special reference to their Fish fauna, conduct a detailed study on the Ecology of the cold water streams in selected shola forests of Kerala, observe and identify the dying gene pool resources of fishes, if any, in the shola forests and suggest measures for protection and propagation of such endemic fish varieties, locate areas to be designated as “Fishery-Reserve forests” or “Fish Sanctuaries” for conserving the dying fishery resources, take up special studies on Trouts and Mahseer fishes available in the cold waters of Kerala, survey and locate ideal streams and lakes for developing Tourism fisheries.

The shola regions were located with the help of toposheets; study areas and sampling stations were fixed; route and distance to different spots, altitude, type of forest, shola etc were marked. From these fixed stations collection of water samples and fish specimens were done. Observations and studies of various parameters relating to water, soil, and environment were also done. Quality analyses, both physico-chemical and biological parameters, of water in streams/ rivulets of the study area were carried out. Periodicity of observation of water quality parameters were fixed based on the seasonality of summer, monsoon and winter months. Observations regarding physical habitats and analysis of various environmental parameters and collection of fish specimens were done. The streams and rivers in the fixed study locations were visited. Collection of fish samples were made from the upper catchments of the streams. The features of the habitat like depth, flow pattern, substrate distribution, canopy cover, nature of water, flow rate and disturbance were assessed at the collection sites. The chemical parameters of water were measured at the sampling site itself.