Inland Fisheries

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 river of the East coast system, besides their own indigenous fish fauna of several carp species including Gangetic carp, catfishes, murrels, prawns. Tributaries of the Cauvery from the Nilgiris have cold water fish like trout and tench.

i) The river Mahanadi

It is a river of eastern India. The Mahanadi rises in the Satpura Range of central India, and flows east to the Bay of Bengal. The Mahanadi drains most of the state of Chhattisgarh and much of Orissa and also Jharkhand and Maharashtra. It has a length of about 860 km. Near the city of Sambalpur, a large dam, the Hirakud Dam is on the river.

Fish and Fisheries of Godavari

The river mainly harbours the hill stream fishes. The most common fishes are Chela untrahi, Erethistes conta and Arius gagora.

ii) 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 ), c atfishes (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.

iii) 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.

iv) The river Cauvery

It is one of the great rivers of India. This river is also called Dakshin Ganga. It o riginates in the Brahamagiri hills in the Western Ghats range of Karnataka state, and from Karnataka through Tamil Nadu, it empties into the Bay of Bengal. The source of the river is Talakaveri located in the Western Ghats about 5,000 feet (1,500 m) above sea level. It flows generally south and east for around 765 km, emptying into the Bay of Bengal through two principal mouths. Its basin is estimated to be 27,700 square miles (71,700 km²), and it has many tributaries including Shimsha, Hemavati, Arkavathy, Kapila, Honnuhole, Lakshmana Tirtha, Kabini, Lokapavani, Bhavani, Noyyal and Amaravati. The large Mettur dam has been constructed across Cauvery in Tamil nadu. In Tamil nadu, i n the Thanjavur delta, the river divides into a northern branch, the Coleroon and a southern branch, the Cauvery proper. The Lower anaicut is across the river, Coleroon and the Upper anaicut and Grand anaicut are across Cauvery proper.

Fish and Fisheries of Cauvery

Eighty three species of fishes belonging to 23 families have been reported from the Cauvery river. They are:

• Carps: Catla catla, Labeo rohita, Cirrhinus mrigala, Cyprinus carpio, Tor putitora, Barbu s carnaticus , B. dubius, Labeo kontius, Cirrhinus cirrhosa, Acrossocheilus hexagonolepis, Osteochilus hexagonolepis, Osteochilus brevidorsalis
• Catfishes: Mystus seengala, M. aor, Wallago attu, Pangasius pangasius, Silonia silondia, Glyptothorax madraspatanum
• Miscellaneous : Notopterus notopterus, Channa marulius, Osphronemus goramy

Fishing gears employed

They are similar to the Godavrai system. They include gillnets (set gillnet, drift gillnet, drag gillnet, barrier gillnet), seines (shore seine, large seine and drag net) and cast net.