Introduction

River Narmada is considered as the “Lifeline” for the millions of people of Central India. It is one of the largest (1312 km) west- flowing rivers of the country that originates from Maikala highlands near Amarkantak under Shahdol district of Madhya Pradesh and culminates into the Arabian Sea in the Bharuch district of Gujarat. This is one of the river in peninsular India that run from east to west along with river Tapi and Mahi and flows to the states of Madhya Pradesh (1077 km), Maharashtra (74 km), and Gujarat (161 km). It is also known as the lifeline of Madhya Pradesh for its huge contribution to the state. A series of dams have been constructed in the river Narmada basin under a comprehensive river valley project programme, contributing to reservoir fishery resources and an increase in the inland fish production of India (Bhaumik et al. 2017; Bhakta et al. 2018a).

There are several reports on the finfish diversity pattern from different stretches of river Narmada. Vyas et al. (2006) reported 47 fish species of river Narmada from Hoshangabad region. Vyas et al. (2009) studied the fish biodiversity of Narmada in the submergence area of Indira Sagar reservoir and encountered 52 species belonging to 28 genera, 13 families, and 7 orders. Vishwakarma et al. (2014) studied the assessment of fish assemblage and distribution in the Barna stream network in the Narmada basin (Central India) and recorded 33 species belonging to 5 orders, 9 families, and 21 genera. Bhakta et al. (2018b) reported finfish diversity patterns from the estuarine zone of river Narmada, Gujarat. Knowledge of the fish species composition and their respective distribution patterns is a prerequisite for the conservation and management of native fish fauna (Mogalekar et al. 2017). Besides conservation of fish diversity is an important aspect under the present scenario of habitat destruction (Vishwakarma et al. 2014). In this review, we attempted to compile the reports of the availability of finfish species from river Narmada systems with reference to their habitat, size, and human use pattern and conservation status.

Materials and Methods

Several works being carried out on fish diversity pattern in river Narmada and its tributaries by various researchers. This review is based on the documents collected from websites; published papers in journals, textbooks, bulletins, reports, and grey literature (government reports, policy statements, etc.). The species checklists reported in Tables 1 and 2 include reports from 1941 to 2018. While reporting the fish species in this review we checked the taxonomic status of the species based on Talwar and Jhingran (1991), Nelson (2006), and FishBase (Froese and Pauly 2019). Latest name of the species was prepared based on the Catalogue of Fishes of the California Academy of Sciences (Eschmeyer et al. 2019). In addition habit, maximum size recorded, utilization pattern was provided based on FishBase, while the conservation status of each species was provided as per criteria of IUCN Red List Categories (IUCN 2019).

Table 1 Finfish species reported from river Narmada with the collection sites
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Table 2 Fish diversity of river Narmada with a note on habitat, locality, maximum size, fishery status, and conservation status
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Result and Discussion

The updated checklist of finfish species reported from different stretches of river Narmada along with their respective habitats, maximum size recorded as per FishBase, fishery information, IUCN Red List Status, and collection sites with respective references have been provided in Table 2. We could compile a total of 196 species from both freshwater and brackish water habitats, under 14 orders, 51 families, and 126 genera (Table 3).

Table 3 Finfish diversity of river Narmada systems
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The order Cypriniformes is known to dominate the Indian river systems. In agreement with this, we found a total of 78 species of cyprinids out of 196 reported species (i.e., 39.8%) from river Narmada and its tributaries. As per the IUCN Red List category, the maximum number of species is under Least Concern (129), followed by Not Evaluated (36), Near Threatened (14), Data Deficient (11), Vulnerable (4) and Endangered (2). The two endangered species of this river system include Tor khudree and Tor putitora and the four vulnerable species of this river system include Cirrhinus cirrhosus, Cyprinus carpio, Gagata itchkeea, and Tenualosa toli. Special conservation measures are required to protect these six species from extinction. Out of 196 finfish species, 77 are food fishes, 33 having both ornamental and food fish value, 21 are truly ornamental value and 31 are sports fishes. A total of 79 species are reported to have freshwater habits from the Narmada river system. The freshwater fish fauna of India is diversified comprising between 1027 (Gopi et al. 2017) and 1030 species (Froese and Pauly 2020). Over the past few decades, several workers have investigated the fish diversity of river Narmada.

According to the available reports, the first study was conducted by Hora and Nair in 1941 and they reported a total of 40 species. A follow-up study by Karamchandani et al. (1967) reported 77 fish species belonging to 41 genera, 19 families, and 7 orders from Hashangabad and Shahgang fish assembly centers. Department of Fisheries, Madhya Pradesh recorded 46 species belonging to 14 families during 1967-71 (Anon 1971). Rao et al. (1991) have documented 84 fish species belonging to 45 genera, 20 families, and 6 orders from the western zone of the river at Punasa, Omkareswar, Mandleswar, and Barwani. Tuli and Pande (1992) reported 24 species in the Indira Sagar area before the impoundment of the dam. Sharma et al. (2014) could find 50 fish species belonging to 32 genera, 14 families, and 6 orders from the Hoshangabad region of river Narmada. Recently Bhakta et al. (2018b) documented a total of 85 finfish species from the 72 km estuarine zone of Narmada river from Bharuch to Ambetha.

The finfish documentation for Narmada river systems indicated that the river is very rich in fish biodiversity. The systems also support many vulnerable and endangered species, so proper management strategies need to be formulated to save the fish populations of the systems. We believe that the present document will be immensely helpful for the stakeholders and the policymakers to design and execute future developmental strategies for the conservation of the system.