Research Journal of Animal, Veterinary and Fishery Sciences ___________________________________________   Vol. 1(1), 7-10, February (2013) Res. J. Animal, Veterinary & Fishery Sci. International Science Congress Association        
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Diversity and Composition of Fishes of Chaskaman Dam, Rajgurunagar, part of Northern Western Ghats, Pune, MS, IndiaTheurkar S.V., Takalakar D.L., Jadhav S.S. and Pawar R.M.1 Department of Zoology, Nowrosjee Wadia College, Pune- 1, INDIA Zoological Survey of India, Akurdi, Pune, INDIA Available online at: 
www.isca.in
Received 18th September 2012, revised 1st October 2012, accepted 4th November 2012Abstract The Western Ghats streams exhibit high variability in fish assembles. Chaskaman dam is one of the prime dams in Pune district (MS). Its storage capacity of water is 246 Million cubic meters. The depth of water at the wall of the dam is about 150 m. This area receives precipitation from southwest monsoon (June to September). It is one of the prime Dams of Pune district and unexplored.In the present study, an attempt has been made to collect various species, as this Dam has not been paid too much attention in biodiversity and resource assessment studies. As many as 30 species belonging to 4 Orders, 11 Families of 24 Genera were recorded. In the assemblage structure of Chaskaman dam is dominated by cyprinids 19 species, followed by 6 species of perches, 4 species of Siluriformes and 1 species of Synbranchiformes. Oreochromis mossambica (Peters) exotic species were recorded in Chaskaman Dam. Seven endemic species of Western Ghats were found occurring in this dam. Key words: Fish diversity, composition, Chaskaman Dam, Bhima River, Western Ghats.IntroductionRajgurunagar is a town in Pune, Maharashtra. It is located at the end of northern block of the Pune district in Maharashtra state of India. Rajgurunagar is located on the bank of the Bhima River and 40 km away from Pune.Present study deals with a Chaskaman dam which is situated in Rajgurunagar in Pune district. Chaskaman dam was built on 1977 at Bibi village. It consists of built up of Bhima River which is Northern western India. Depth of water at the wall of the dam of about 150 m. Water stays in the dam whole year. Considering the importance of fresh water resources in inland fishery, number of studies had been conducted, involving various aspects of dams and reservoir fisheries such as on Chilka Lake, Stanley Reservoir, Sardar Sagar and Kandhar TankThe Western Ghats streams exhibit high variability in fish assembles and the assemblage composition is determined by specific ecological conditions2,3. The Western Ghats, located along the southwest coastline of the Indian subcontinent, is a biodiversity ‘Hotspot’ and is extremely rich in fish diversity and endemic4,5,6. Most of the information on fish habitat structure an assemblages are available from temperate streams and very meager information is available in Indian streams  Chaskaman dam situated at 18-15’-40” North and 73-47’-15” East; at an average altitude 1000 ml. Various forest types such as tropical evergreen, semi-evergreen, moist and dry deciduous and high altitude shoals mingle with natural and manmade grasslands, in addition to agriculture, plantation crops, stream valley projects mining areas and many other land uses. Species richness at local scale, however, are more dependent on biological factors like competition and predation  as well as physical factors like habitat diversity; Water chemistry, flow regimes, temperature. The biological study of water is helpful in problems like pollution control, the construction and renovation of dams and lakes, fish and aquatic life. For fish communities, substrate complexity, stream flow and water quality characteristics were found to be important in determining local richnes. Species assort themselves along environmental gradients like pH, temperature etc. and their diversity increases in going from upstream to downstream. Material and Methods The fish sample was carried out in between August 2010 to August 2011. Fish sample were collected through experimental fishing using cast net, gill nets, drag nets and also used the local tires. Based on the fish catch, species richness and fish abundant data were generated for each site. Fishes have been preserved in 4% formalin. For fish sampling four collection sites were selected according to the substrate type muddy, pebbles and gravels, sand and silt and Rocky. The sampling was made 100-150 m stretches of each site. At each site pH, temperature, percentage canopy cover measured. The Northern Western Ghats streams exhibit high variability in fish assemblages and the assemblage composition is determined by specific ecological conditions. For identification of fishes have been identified using standard literatures8,9,10 and also with help of Zoological Survey of India, Akurdi (Pune).