Fish Fauna of Asan River and Its Tributaries, Western Doon Valley, Dehradun (Uttarakhand), with Conservation Status of Species and Threats - Aquatic Ecosystem: Biodiversity, Ecology and Conservation - page 224

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Fish Fauna of Asan River and Its
Tributaries, Western Doon Valley,
Dehradun (Uttarakhand),
with Conservation Status
of Species and Threats

Akhlaq Husain *

Abstract
The present study deals with the fi sh fauna (44 species) of Asan River and
its tributaries based on actual collections, with their update systematic
account; distribution in Uttarakhand, rest of India and other countries;
habitat and ecology; and conservation status with threats and importance
in various ways (fi shery, game, aquaria, etc.). The species of doubtful
occurrence have also been listed.

Keywords
Fish • Asan River • Distribution • Diversity

Introduction

restricted his studies to the fauna of its reservoir
and environs. In view of this, the present study
was taken up, and a total of 44 species belonging
to 29 genera, 11 families and 5 orders, with a new
record of Aspidoparia jaya (Hamilton, 1822),
were collected from the river between its incep-
tion and joining Yamuna. In this study, systematic
account with English and local names; localities
surveyed; diagnostic characters including sexual
dimorphism (if any); distribution in Uttarakhand
(as per Husain 1975 , 1976 , 1979 , 1980 , 1995 ,
2010b ; Khanna and Badola 1992 ; Badola 2009 ;
Kumar and Husain 2014 ), rest of India and else-
where; habitat and ecology; and conservation sta-
tus as per IUCN (International Union for
Conservation of Nature) Red List along with
threats and commercial or other importance of
each species are dealt; doubtful records of species
have also been listed. The species ( Schistura mon-
tana and S. rupecula ) not found in the main Asan

The fi sh fauna of Dehradun district has attracted
the attention of various workers (Das 1960 ;
Fowler 1924 ; Hora and Mukerji 1936 ; Lal and
Chatterjee 1963 ; Singh 1964 ; Tilak and Husain
1973 , 1976 , 1977a , b , 1978a , b , 1990 ; Grover
1970 ; Grover et al. 1994 ; Singh and Gupta 1979 ;
Husain 1995 , 2003 , 2010a , b , 2012 ; Husain and
Tilak 1995 ; Badola 2009 ; Uniyal 2010 , Uniyal
and Kumar 2006 ; Uniyal and Mehta 2007 ) during
the past, but very little attention has been paid on
the fi shes of Asan River, one of the major rivers of
Western Doon Valley, Dehradun. Husain ( 2003 )