KOCHI: There is a heavy decline in the fish wealth of the river Pampa. A host of fish species, which were reported to be exceedingly common in the Pampa river in early 30s, have shown alarming decline in their population to the tune of more than 5070 percent.
This was found by a research team of the Cochin University of Science and Technology (Cusat), which pioneered a valuation of the harvested fishery wealth, under the project 'Database on fish germplasm, capture fisheries and biodiversity threats of rivers of Kerala' supported by the Kerala State Council for Science, Technology and Environment.
The team comprising B Madhusoodana Kurup, M Harikrishnan and C R Renjith Kumar of the School of Industrial Fisheries, Cusat, are doing a similar assessment of 10 major rivers in the state. "We have found the annual landing in Pampa as 394 tonnes and identified 60 species of fin fishes and a species of prawn. Among these fin fishes, 26 appeared regularly in six landing centres," Cusat School of Industrial Fisheries director B Madhusoodana Kurup said.
He added that 10 among them are muchsoughtafter in overseas markets as ornamental fishes.
However, around 42 tonnes of fishes having ornamental importance are indiscriminately caught annually and used either as duck and poultry feed or manure. This causes huge losses to the state exchequer, the study pointed out. The fish species include thooli, varal, vala, karimeen, vayambu and kuruva paral.
In the present study, species such as catfish (nadan mushiclarias dussumieri) and malanjil (eelanguilla sp.) could not be located.
Interestingly, 'thooli' appeared as the dominant species contributing 76 tonnes. The species was listed under threatened category in Pampa during 198790.
It was during this time that Kurup and his team developed captive breeding of this species and the young ones were released in large numbers into the river. The river ranching was very effective in the restoration of thooli. "Habitat decline and degradation owing to water abstraction, siltation, pollution from sewage and agriculture are very rampant in this river. Illegal fishing activities using poison, electricity and plant poison, poor water quality parameters such as high biochemical oxygen demand (BOD) and low dissolved oxygen (DO), invasion of exotic and alien fish species such as African Muzhi, common carp and Indian major carps are posing a threat to the indigenous fish germplasm resources," Kurup said. The study recommended setting up of a locallevel management body for the conservation and judicious utilisation of the fishery resources in the Pampa. The fish wealth of the Pampa contributes `3.7 crore annually to the state's economy.
