Biodiversity of Fish of Betravati River in Madhya Pradesh, India with particular orientation to a sacred ghat

Abstract

Many sacred natural sites are areas of great importance for the conservation of biodiversity. Sacred
natural sites can be considered a subset of “sacred sites”, which may be defined as areas of special
spiritual significance to people and communities. The wider category of sacred sites may include
primarily natural areas (such as forests), but also human-built or monumental areas (such as temples).
Many built or monumental sacred sites are themselves located in areas with high natural values that are
often recognised by the faith concerned. IUCN focuses on areas that are primarily natural, as they link
to its mission, but generally supports the cause of conserving both monumental and natural sacred
sites as valuable elements of human cultures. In this regards authors have tried to identify a natural
sacred site at Betwa River in Madhya Pradesh and compared the fish diversity and distribution to two
non sacred sites. The sampling was carryout between 2006 - April 2007. Sixty fish species belonging to
15 families and 34 genera out of 60 species, 48 species have been recorded at a sacred ghat. A total of
5,461 individuals of fish were counted during the one study period. The most abundant family was
Cyprinidae, having 3,594 individuals (65.81%) and subdominant family was Ambassidae, which
accounted for 441 individuals (8.08%); rest of the families contributed in order of abundance throughout
the study. The diversity indices (Shannon, Simpson and Margalef) showed higher values at S3 (a sacred
ghat) sampling site as compared to other two (S1, and S2) non sacred sampling sites.