Fish Faunal Diversity and Species Composition in Rupnarayan River, West Bengal, India

A comprehensive fish diversity study in the Rupnarayan River in West Bengal, India, were undertaken for two years, once every month at four separate study locations. Recorded a total of 109 fish species, which were ultimately divided into 82 genera, 44 families, and 19 orders. Seventy-one of the total number of fish species were designated as being the first to be documented from the Rupnarayan’s water. The order Cypriniformes has the highest composition (18.26%), followed by the Siluriformes (13.80%), Clupeiformes (13.42%), and so on. Cyprinidae represented 17.02% of the total, followed by Mugilidae (9.40%), Engraulidae (7.90%), and so forth. In the winter, Station II had the greatest Simpson's index of diversity (0.983), whereas in the summer, Station III had the lowest (0.961). Sorensen's findings reveal strong predicted similarities between stations I - II (0.84) and II - III (0.76), moderate similarities between stations III - IV (0.63), and a dissimilarity between stations I - IV (0.26). The current study is an up-to-date documentation of the finfish faunal variety and spatial distribution along the entire length of the Rupnarayan River will certainly be a helpful baseline data for future researchers and fishery planners.