Inland Fisheries

3.3.2 The East coast river system

It is a composite system of rivers, the main constituents of which are the Mahanadi, the Godavari, the Krishna and the Cauvery, having a combined length of about 6,437 km. The total catchment area is 121 million ha. This system drains the entire peninsular India, east of Western Ghats in the west and southern parts of central India including Chotta Nagpur hill ranges. These rivers drain into the Bay of Bengal. Mahanadi has all the Indian Major Carps common with the Ganga system. The other rivers of the East coast system, besides their own indigenous fish fauna of several carp species harbour Gangetic carp, catfishes, murrels and prawns. Tributaries of the Cauvery from the Nilgiris have cold water fish like trout and tench.