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Fish is most important aquatic fauna, directly or indirectly related with human health and wealth.
Rivers are one of the major sources of rich variety of fish species. A study was carried out during
April 2013-March 2015 to record the present fish diversity in different sites of river Gadadhar at
Cooch Behar District, West Bengal. The aim of the study was explore the fish fauna of Gadadhar
River. The result of present investigation reveals the occurrence of 73 fish species belonging to 21
families and 45 genera. The family cyprinidae represented the largest diversity accommodating 17
genera and 32 species. References to conservation status categories based on IUCN classification as
per CAMP-NBFGR,9.58% of the recorded fishes belonged to lower risk near threatened(LRnt)
,47.94% lower risk least concern (LRlc) ,26.02% vulnerable (VU) , 9.58% endangered (EN), 1.36%
critically endangered (CEN), 1.36% not evaluated (NE)and 4.1% data deficient (DD) category. It is
concluded that, the conservation of Ichthyodiversity is important for sustainable livelihood of
fisherman and also essential for Socio-economic development of the country.
Key words: Ichthyofaunal diversity, Gadadhar river, Cooch Behar, Ornamental fish, Conservation status.