Inland Fisheries

3.3.2.2 The river Godavari

The river with second longest course within India, Godavari is often referred to as the Vriddh (Old) Ganga or the Dakshin (South) Ganga. It is about 1440 km long. It originates from Deolali hills near Nasik and Mumbai in Maharashtra around 380 km distance from the Arabian Sea, but flows southeast across south-central India through the states of Chhattisgarh, Karnataka, Orissa and Andhra Pradesh, and empties into the Bay of Bengal in the Northern Western Ghats. Its catchment area is 315,980 km². It is a seasonal river, widened during the monsoons and dried during the summers. Its main tributaries are Manjira, Wainganga (secondary tributaries – Penuganga and Wardha) and Indravati. Its minor tributaries are Purna, Maner, Sabari etc. There is no major dam. However, several small dams have been built across the tributaries of Godavari and long irrigation canals form a network of water bodies.

Fish and Fisheries of Godavari

The most common fishes in this river include fishes such as carps (Labeo fimbriatus, Cirrhinus mrigala, Labeo calbasu, Catla catla ), catfishes (Mystus seenghala, Mystus aor, Silonia childreni, Wallago attu, Pangasius pangasius, Bagarius bagarius) and Hilsa ilisha. Of the several carp species, L. fimbriatus is found to dominate and this is followed by C. mrigala. Macrobrachium malcolmsonii (Godavari prawn) is the prawn common in this river. Fishing gears that are commonly employed are gillnets (set gillnet, drift gillnet, drag gillnet, barrier gillnet), seines (shore seine, large seine and drag net) and cast net.