Preliminary Studies on the Faunal Diversity in the Fish Landing Centers of Sunderbans

Abstract

The Indian part of Sunderbans consists an area of 9630 sq km including various islands and mainland connectivity. Majority of the population depends on ô€ishing activity especially the livelihood of the local people is supported with capture ô€isheries. The biodiversity in Sundarbans includes numerous species of phytoplankton, fungi, bacteria, zooplankton, plants, benthic invertebrates, molluscs, ô€ishes, reptiles, amphibians, birds and mammals. Since ô€ishery is the main activity, a large number of crafts and gears were operated in the creeks, estuaries and marine systems. Total marine ô€isherfolk population in Sunderbans is 2,69,565 with an active ô€isher population of 70,750 residing in 237 villages operates 6,205 mechanized crafts 3,81,028 motorised crafts and 6,046 non-motorised crafts. The commercial exploitation of the faunal communities is positively correlated with the increase in crafts and gears. Trawls, gill netters, purse sciners etc. are among the mechanized crafts and plank built boats, dugout canoes and catamarans are under non mechanized crafts. Hence the Present study is signiô€icant in recording the observation on the local ô€ishing markets which is considered as the collection point of the commercial fauna mainly ô€ishes and crustaceans including crabs and prawns. The collected fauna of Sunderbans are disbursed to various commercial outlets named ô€ish markets leading to Kolkata and port Canning is considered as the main outlet since it was popularly called as Gate way of Sunderbans. Canning is situated on the bank of river Matla which is the western boundary of Indian part of Sunderbans. Hence an outline research work was initiated to demark the preliminary data on the commercial faunal exploitation from Sunderbans ecosystems through Canning. The present study recorded a total of 06 species of Brachyuran Crabs from 01 Order, 04 Families, 05 Genera and 22 Examples; 01 species of Prawn from 01 Order, 01 Family, 01 Genus and 01 Example; 01 species of Lobster from 01 Order, 01 Family, 01 Genus and 01Example; 72 species of Fishes from 10 Orders, 41 Families, 64 Genera and 161 Examples; 01 species of Reptile from 01 Order, 01 Family, 01 Genus and 01 Example.