Ganesan Kantharajan

National Bureau of Fish Genetic Resources | NBFGR · Conservation Division

The conservation and management of inland fish and freshwater ecosystems immensely contribute to global sustainable development. The existing ‘Protected Area’ (PA) network does not represent freshwater resources well and seldom considers its fish communities while designating PAs. A study was undertaken to quantitatively assess the role played by t...

Rivers are dynamic ecosystems with diverse habitats that require ample connectivity to ensure the flow of ecosystem services, thus empowering the sustainable development of an entire basin. Geo-spatial tools offer powerful prospects for monitoring of aquatic ecosystems. The usefulness of Sentinel-2 datasets to assess river connectivity has been exp...

Sediment export and retention are important ecosystem processes in any landscape causing soil erosion and sediment loading in waterways consequently affecting the health of aquatic habitats downstream. The present study quantifies sediment export and retention in four watersheds, viz., Hivra, Satrapur, Konta, and Jagdalpur in the Godavari River Bas...

The concept of “state fishes of India” highlights the importance and significance of the prioritized fish species distributed across various states within the country. This review article systematically documents the current status of state fishes from various perspectives, identifies the prevailing knowledge gaps, and also highlights the issues an...

Microplastic (MP) content in the gastropod, Telescopium telescopium, collected from the mangrove forest of Versova Creek, Mumbai was investigated. In total, 60 specimens were collected and pooled into six groups of 10 animals, each according to their weight and size. The concentration of extracted MP was expressed as the number of MP particles g-1...

Reservoirs are major inland water resources benefitting society through multiple ecosystem services, including fish production. However, the scope of the reservoirs in India is yet to be explored for its full fisheries potential and the scientific/management personnel are engaged in bridging the yield gap. This paper reviews the research progress m...

The Asian seabass, Lates calcarifer, is an important species in the Asia-Pacific region and is cultured widely. The growing demand for its seed has led to an increase in commercial introductions from other nations to India. In the current study, we developed novel microsatellite markers and analysed the natural genetic diversity of L. calcarifer. T...

Gymnothorax tamilnaduensis sp. nov. , a new species of short brown unpatterned moray, is described, based on four specimens ranging from 272–487 mm total length collected from the trawl bycatch landings at Mudasalodai fish landing centre, off Cuddalore coast, Tamil Nadu, southeast coast of India. The new species is distinguished by the following co...

Fish stocks that are grown under diverse environmental conditions have different biometric relationships and growth patterns. The biometric length-weight relationship (LWR) is an essential fishery assessment tool, as fish growth is continuous and depends on genetic and environmental factors. The present study attempts to understand the LWR of the f...

Reservoirs have tremendous fisheries potential amongst the inland water resources and aptly referred as 'sleeping giants', as the fish yield potential of these resources are yet to be tapped. Existing gaps in the availability of absolute information and data on the inland water resources hinder the applicability and implementation of various fisher...

Luni is an ephemeral and inland saline river flowing through the Thar Desert of India. The present study focusses on the length-weight relationships (LWRs) and condition factor analysis of six native and one invasive alien fish species (Oreochromis mossambicus) collected from the river Luni during the exploratory surveys conducted from October 2018...

The riverine ecosystem provides multiple benefits to human community and contributes to the sustainable development of the ecoregion. The growing dependency on these ecosystems has largely contributed to aggravating the ecological risks, habitat degradation, and loss of ecosystem services. The present study evaluates the ecological risk emanating f...

Inland fisheries resources are vital for the human community and contribute to the development of a particular region. However, inland water bodies are highly dynamic, surrounded by terrestrial ecosystems, and face multiple threats from various anthropogenic stressors. Hence, the conservation and management of aquatic resources are becoming formida...

Chitala chitala (Hamilton, 1822) is an economically important food fish species occurring throughout Indian rivers, which also has ornamental value. This study focuses on morphological variations in C. chitala from seven river basins across India namely; Son, Tons, Ken, Brahmaputra, Ganga, Gomti and Gandak. A truss network was constructed by interc...

Mortalities were observed in several Pangasianodon hypophthalmus farms (n = 52) of Uttar Pradesh, North India during December 2020–January 2021. The affected fish were lethargic, swimming near the water surface and had white or grayish cotton-like patches over the body surface. Wet mount examination of the patches revealed presence of non-septate h...

The eight National Fisheries Research Institutes under the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) play a significant role in driving fisheries development in the country by advancing knowledge through basic and applied research; technology development and extension/outreach. Collaboration and networking among researchers and institutes are...

‘Saraiyaman’ along Gandak River in the Ganges basin is a protected natural oxbow lake. In spite of the protection mechanism, it has been unrecognised for its habitat services to the fish community by resource managers and local dwellers. To investigate fish diversity and habitat status of Saraiyaman, exploratory surveys were conducted from April 20...

Burgeoning population growth, increasing affluence, and changing dietary habits of people have caused a phenomenal rise in fish demand over the years in India. Diversification of aquaculture species aimed at increasing yield and providing a wider choice of fish protein to the consumers has led to the introduction of several more affordable species...

Food legumes, especially pulses, have a significant role in ensuring food and nutritional security of human and animal population. India is the largest producer of pulses in the world, accounting for 28% of the global pulses production. The current study evaluates the trends in research on pulses in India. The research productivity data for the per...

The national fisheries research in India is spearheaded by domain-specific fisheries research institutions under the aegis of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), New Delhi. The current study was undertaken to assess the temporal trends in research publications during the period 2009-2018, from eight fisheries research institutes und...

Identification of a suitable site is a crucial step for the sustainability of an aquaculture venture. This study shows a framework for identifying areas suitable for freshwater and brackishwater aquaculture in India while integrating the governing regulations. Land use and land cover (LULC) maps at 1:10,000 scale derived from high-resolution imager...

Mesoscale eddies are important ocean phenomena that enhance biological productivity by mixing of water column and influence fishery catches, especially in stratified seas such as Bay of Bengal and Andaman Sea. The current study was conducted around the Andaman and Nicobar Islands (ANI), India located in the Eastern Indian Ocean. The study tested th...

White spot syndrome virus (WSSV) is one of the most devastating pathogens, which inflicted huge losses to the shrimp farming sector in India and the world. The current study maps the WSSV research output during 1998–2017 using Web of Science (WoS) database. A total of 1786 tags were subjected to the present analysis which covers various parameters...

Planning aquaculture and fisheries activities in a reservoir requires knowledge of dynamics of water spread. We studied water spread dynamics of three reservoirs in the Godavari river basin, India using multi-temporal satellite imagery for the period 1990–2018 and developed a framework for mapping the spatial extent of water spread area (WSA) havin...

Marine debris accumulation in the ecologically sensitive areas such as mangrove ecosystems, disturbs the ecosystem processes and the biodiversity. Mangrove ecosystems are structurally complex, which facilitates the accumulation of debris within it over other coastal ecosystems. In spite of this, very few studies have been undertaken to assess the d...

Ever increasing human population, habitat destruction and pollution along the Mumbai coast are some of the major threats to molluscan fauna. Molluscs form a major group of organisms that makes-up an integral part of mangrove ecosystems. A study, carried out in 8 mangrove areas of Mumbai, west coast of India, from August 2015 to May 2016, revealed a...

FIRST REPORT OF ANTIGONA SOMWANGI HUBER, 2010 (MOLLUSCA: BIVALVIA: VENERIDAE) FROM INDIA Antigona somwangi Huber, 2010, is newly reported from Indian waters. This extends the distributional range for this species to the west coast of the Bay of Bengal, previously it had been known only from Andaman Sea.