Study of Endemic and Threatened Fish Species Diversity and its Assemblage Structure from Northern Western Ghats, Maharashtra, India

The present investigation undertakes to study endemic and threatened fish species and its assemblage structure from rivers of Kolhapur district for the period July-2012 to December-2014. The study area is situated in the extreme Southern part of Maharashtra state. It contributes much more part of Western Ghats. A total of 23 species belonging to 7 families and 19 genera were reported. In which 9 species are threatened and 20 species are endemic to Western Ghats, we found that 6 species are threatened as well as endemic. Puntius sahyadriensis, Nemacheilus anguilla, Pterocryptis wynaadensis and Glyptothorax trewavasae are first time reported from Kolhapur district. High Shannon diversity index shows considerable variation and ranges from 1.34-2.43. Margalef’s diversity index and Evenness index for each sampling site were also recorded. The similarity in cluster analysis from nearby sampling site along the river has similar faunal assemblage. The problems related to various threats for aquatic biodiversity and conservation management strategies have been discussed.