A study on Certain Physico-Chemical Parameters and Fish Resources of Tamranga Beel, Bongaigaon, Assam

Beels/ wetlands are the most productive and biologically rich ecosystem which provides a natural habitat to many aquatic plants and animals. Bongaigaon district of Assam situated in the northwestern part of Assam between 26°10’ N and 26°45’ N latitudes and 90°50’ E and 91°00’ E longitudes has a total 2.90 % of wetland area (Bhagawati et al.,2015) covering an area of 22149ha. Among the important beels in Bongaigaon district, Tamranga Beel is one of the most potential beel for fish resources having an area of 627 ha and it lies within the co-ordinates of N 26°18ꞌ -26°21ꞌand E 90°33ꞌ - 90°35ꞌ and at an altitude of 36 m. In this study an attempt has been made to record different fish species available in the wetland along with certain physico-chemical parameters. From the water analysis, it is revealed that water temperature lies between 200c-130 c in March, 290 c- 230 c in July and 27.30c -18.90c in September whereas atmospheric temperature lies in between 230c -160c in March, 33.80c -280c in July and 29.50c- 21.20c in September. Further, pH was recorded as 7, 6.8 and 7.7 in March, July and September respectively, DO was found as 8.0, 6.7, 8.1 respectively in March, July and September and free carbon dioxide content was recorded as 3.5 mg L-1, 5.5 mg L-1, 3.8 mg L-1 respectively in March, July and September. In this study, total 54 species of fish belonging to 22 families were identified in Tamranga beel, of which 4 numbers of species are near threatened and one species is vulnerable.