Inland Fisheries

3.1.6 Production potential of rivers of India

          The country as a whole has a river length (including canals) of 1,95,210 km with a resource potential of 29,000 km. Different river systems of the country with a combined length of 29,000 km offer one of the richest fish genetic resources of the world. Their highly diverse natural fish fauna characterizes Indian rivers. All these water bodies have about 930 fish species belonging to 326 genera. Though proper riverine production data are not available, the data collected by CIFRI, Barrackpore on selected stretches of the rivers, Ganga, Brahmaputra, Narmada, Tapti, Godavari and Krishna shows that fish production from these rivers vary from 0.64 to 1.64 tonnes per km, with an average of 1 tonne per km. The riverine fisheries resources contribute significantly to the total inland capture fisheries production. The riverine ecosystem witnessed marked alterations due to water abstraction, dam construction, sedimentation and irrational fishing. These activities affected the natural riverine fish production showing continuous declining trend.