This desk review is directed at those engaged in research, education, development and planning and provides consolidated information on reservoirs, including the resources available, level of technologies and the extent of their utilisation and has attempted to systematically compile all relevant information on Indian reservoirs from a fisheries perspective.
The existing literature on limnology and fisheries has been reviewed, covering more than 100 reservoirs located at different parts of the country. An assessment of environment-mediated production functions of reservoirs has also been attempted. Authentic information on water areas under different categories of reservoirs has been collected and interpreted for the first time in respect of all the Indian States. In the process, the anomalies pertaining to the classification and nomenclature of reservoirs have been resolved to the extent possible.
The three main sources of data and information for this document consist of the published research papers on Indian reservoirs, many technical reports prepared by various Government agencies and the specific information provided by the Fisheries Departments of various State Governments. The material has been presented in 14 chapters. Chapter I gives a national perspective and includes the size and distribution of the resource, the limnological attributes of reservoirs and their production trends. Highlights of reservoir fisheries management in India, including the stocking and the role of exotic fishes are also discussed.
Chapters 2 to 14 present a State-wise description of reservoirs and their fisheries comprising the nine States of Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Himachal Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, and the Northeast. The States of West Bengal and Haryana, their reservoir areas being very small, have not been discussed under separate chapters. The reservoirs in these two States have been accounted for in Chapter I, under the State-wise distribution of man-made lakes.
Each Chapter in Section II contains a description of the reservoir fisheries resources, a few case studies on the reservoirs that have been subjected to scientific investigations and the status of reservoir fisheries in the respective states. The States have been arranged from south to north, beginning with Tamil Nadu, which apart from being the southern most state of India, has the distinction of pioneering the reservoir fisheries research in India.
The document is divided into the following chapters:
- Introduction
- 1.Reservoir fisheries resources of India
- 1.1 Tanks and small reservoirs
- 1.2 Classification of reservoirs
- 1.3 Determinants of reservoir productivity
- 1.4 Reservoir ecosystem
- 1.5 Reservoir fisheries
- 2. Tamil Nadu
- 3. Kerala
- 4. Karnataka
- 5. Andhra Pradesh
- 6. Maharashtra
- 7. Madhya Pradesh
- 8. Orissa
- 9. Gujarat
- 10. Rajasthan
- 11. Himachal Pradesh
- 12. Uttar Pradesh
- 13. Bihar
- 14. The North East
- References
- Glossary
