International Science Community Association International Research Journal of Biological Sciences 2278 - 3202 6 3 2017 03 10 Edible marine molluscan fauna found at Digha coast, West Bengal, India 26 41 EN Senthilkumar S.R. 1 Department of Botany, Annamalai University, Annamalainagar 608 002, Tamil Nadu, India Sivakumar T. 2 Department of Botany, Annamalai University, Annamalainagar 608 002, Tamil Nadu, India Arulmozhi K.T. 3 Physics Wing (DDE), Annamalai University, Annamalainagar 608 002, Tamil Nadu, India Mythili N. 4 Department of Physics, Mohamed Sathak Engineering College, Kilakarai-623806, Ramnad, India S. Geetha 1 Department of Microbiology, The Standard Fireworks Rajaratnam College for Women Sivakasi, Tamilnadu, India Ranjani S. Subha 2 Department of Microbiology, The Standard Fireworks Rajaratnam College for Women Sivakasi, Tamilnadu, India Dutta Dandeswar 1 Rain Forest Research Institute, Jorhat-785001, Post Box No-136, Assam, India Hazarika Protul 2 Rain Forest Research Institute, Jorhat-785001, Post Box No-136, Assam, India Hazarika P. 3 Rain Forest Research Institute, Jorhat-785001, Post Box No-136, Assam, India Das Manotosh 1 Department of Aquaculture Management & Technology, Vidyasagar University, Midnapore, West Bengal, India and Department of Fishery, Govt. of West Bengal, India > Research Paper 2017 2 13 2017 03 10 At present, the total population of India is about 127 crores. Among them a huge number of our children have been suffering from mal-nutritional diseases. They need protein feed and molluscs meat is a good source of protein. India harvested 1.73 lakh tones of Cephalopods, 0.04 lakh tones of Bivalves and 0.02 lakh tones of Gastropods from Indian marine resources in the year 2013-2014. In Southern part of India especially Andhra Pradesh, Tamilnadu, Kerala, Karnataka etc, the poor people including fisher folk population considered the molluscan meat as their feed. At Digha, the beach is about 10 kms long from Digha Mohana to Paschim Gadadharpur and 54 bivalve species, 35 gastropod species and 4 cephalopod species are found as per present study. Out of them 12 bivalves, 2 gastropods and 4 cephalopods are edible species but local people do not consume them except Cephalopods because they are getting different varieties of marine fishes in low price value. But in future the molluscan meat may be eaten by local poor people due to containing high protein in comparation with marine fishes and also scarcity of marine fishes. Copyright@ International Science Community Association