Inland Fisheries

3.3.2.3 The river Krishna

          The Krishna is one of the longest rivers of India (1120 km in length). Its c atchment area is 233,229 km². It originates at Mahabaleswar in Maharashtra, passes through Sangli and meets the sea in the Bay of Bengal at Hamasaladeevi in Andhra Pradesh. The Krishna river flows through the states of Maharashtra, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh. Its most important tributary is the Tungabhadra River, which itself is formed by the Tunga and Bhadra rivers that originate in the Western Ghats. Other tributaries include the Koyna, Bhima, Mallaprabha, Ghataprabha, Yerla, Warna, Dindi, Musi and Dudhganga rivers. There are dams (anaicuts) or weirs and barrages. Several reservoirs have been built on the rivulets, and some major dams as the Lakkavali, Tungabhadra, Koina and Vanivilas Sagar have been constructed. The conditions of flow, nature of river bed and other features of the Krishna river system are quite similar to Godavari system.

Fish and Fisheries of Krishna

The fish species composition is similar to the Godavrai system. The major fishes of the river include carps (Labeo fimbriatus, Cirrhinus mrigala, Labeo calbasu, Catla catla ), c atfishes (Mystus seenghala, Mystus aor, Silonia childreni, Wallago attu, Pangasius pangasius, Bagarius bagarius) and Hilsa ilisha. Fishing gears employed are similar to the Godavrai system.