THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: No one who had been to Pookkode Lake in Wayanad would think that pollution of this serene lake would one day cause the near-extinction of a fish, Puntius pookodensis. This fish and another one, scientifically called Horalabiosa arunachalami, have been categorised as critically endangered by the IUCN Red List on freshwater biodiversity released worldwide on Thursday. Of the nearly 300 fish species assessed by the IUCN, as many as 97 small fishes in Western Ghats were found to be threatened, of which as many as 39 were in the Kerala region of Western Ghats. Several fish seen just in Periyar and Chalakkudy River were found to be endangered. Apart from pollution and habitat alteration, one major cause for the near wipe-out of several fish has been the occurrence of exotic fish in the rivers of the state. There are at least 12 exotic fishes, of which 3 are from Africa, 5 from South America, one from Europe, 2 from south-east Asia and one from America. While most of them came to the state via legal and illegal aquatrade, one was introduced for mosquito control. ‘’A combination of strategies are needed for the conservation of freshwater fishes of Kerala. One such strategy is to focus conservation activities on key sites that have the last remaining populations of a species,’’ said Rajeev Raghavan, associate director of the Conservation Research Group, St Albert’s College, who was also involved in the IUCN assessment. Rajeev Raghavan said that there were at least seven such irreplaceable sites in Kerala, including the Chinnar Wildlife Sanctuary, Silent Valley National Park, Aralam Wildlife Sanctuary, Pookode Lake, Periyar National Park, Santhampara Hills and the New Amarambalam Reserve Forest. In the critically endangered list, the carp, commonly known as ‘vayanadan kuyil’ and the loach, locally known as ‘koyikha’, seen in the upstream of Chalakudy have been included. The fish, Miss Kerala, exploited for its decorative value and several of its relatives continue to be in the Red List despite conservation efforts. ‘’Periyar is one of most important river systems with regard to freshwater fish conservation as it is home to 8 endemic species that are not found anywhere else in the world. Six of them are confined to Periyar Lake stream in the Periyar National Park while two species are restricted to the Panniyar stream. Protection of these two regions is very important,’’ said K Krishnakumar, programme officer of the Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and Environment (ATREE), who also took part in the evaluation. A total of 54 species are assessed to be endangered while 31 species of freshwater fish have been assessed as vulnerable.
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