FISH DIVERSITY IN RELATION TO HABITAT OF RAPTI RIVER, CHITWAN

The Rapti River originates in the Mahabharat Range in Central Nepal and flows east to west through the inner Terai region, passing through the Chitwan Valley. It harbors to diverse wildlife, different fish species and other aquatic animals. The study aimed to explore baseline information on the diversity and abundance of fish species and their relationship with environmental variables. A study was carried out to understand the diversity of fish in Rapti River at three different stations. A total of 25 species of fishes belonging to 6 orders, 12 families and 18 genera were recorded. Among the orders, Cypriniformes had the highest number of species (52%) followed by Siluriformes (24%), Perciformes (12%) while Tetraodontiformes, Synbranchiformes, Beloniformes represented each about by 4%. Fish conservation in Rapti River was very effective because only license holder fisherman can catch the fish in river. Local fisherman believed that traditional medicinal benefits of fish species like Puntius ticto supports to increased milk production during breast feeding and some fish species like Glyptothorax telchitta, Puntius ticto and Garua bachcha were declining day by day due to various anthropogenic activities like pollution, regular fishing, illegal fishing and so on.