Northeast home to 357 fish species

Correspondent IMPHAL, September 23 [dropcap]I[/dropcap]n a move to create a fish fauna database, molecular characterization of species, plan for conservation of threatened species and management of fish resources for sustainable utilization of the North East India, a 5-day national workshop on freshwater fish taxonomy is underway at the Manipur University’s life science department here. Prof W Vishwanath of Manipur University’s life science department, a key man behind organizing the workshop while speaking to this reporter said that the main objective of holding the workshop is to upgrade the fish species identification skills of researchers. “It is also an effort to introduce DNA barcoding while identifying and management of new fish species,” he added. DNA barcoding is a taxonomic method that uses a short genetic marker in an organism’s DNA to identify it as belonging to a particular species so that the species details could be stored at the USA based National Centre for Biotechnology Information for the global audience.Freshwater fish fauna of NE India which is home to about 357 fish species, are in the process of discovery besides many species are awaiting discovery as ichthyologists are yet to explore the interior areas and headwaters of criss-crossing rivers and rivulets of the region particularly Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram, Meghalaya in NE India, according to Scientists attending the workshop. Many scientists of the country including Principal scientist Dr Vindhya Mohindra led National Bureau of Fish Genetic Resources(NBFGR), Lucknow team besides other scientists from NE region are participating in the workshop which was inaugurated by the Vice Chancellor of Manipur University Prof HNK Sharma on Monday. On the second day of the workshop held under the aegis of NBFGR and MU, on Tuesday, Dr L Kosygin of Zoological Survey of India presented a paper on fish collection and museum techniques while Dr K Nebeshwar Singh of Moreh College and Dr Kh Geetakumari of ICAR Imphal on demonstration on lebeonines and demonstration on perches. In the post lunch session, Y Lokeshwor of Science and technology university Meghalaya and BD Shangningam Anal of Manipur University delivered papers on demonstration on nemacheillines and psilorhynchids respectively. The workshop is scheduled to conclude on Friday.