The Impact of Coal fly ash Power Station on Distribution and Biodiversity of Freshwater Fishes in Rupnarayan River, West Bengal, india

Abstract

Kolaghat Thermal Power Station is situated on right pool of the river Rupnarayan in Purba Medinipur district. Presently its total power generating capacity is 1260MW, with six units, 210 MW each. The plant generates around 7500-8000 metric tons fly ash which disposed mixed hot waste water on the river and consequently it has an adverse impact on the said river. The fish diversity of the river in relation to physico-chemical parameters was studied by monthly samples taken from May, 2013 to February, 2014. Traditional cast net and craft (Poukia) was used for fish sampling collection. The results of present investigation reflected the occurrence of 27 fish species belonging to 9 order, 18 family and 20 genera. Among the collect species, order Siluriformes (32%) was a good number abundant in all sites besides this order Cypriniformes (20%), Perciformes (17%), Clupeiformes (12%), Mugiliformes and Polynemiformes both (7%), Pleuronectiformes and Symbranchiformes each (2%) respectively. The Simson’s index of diversity (1-D) was highest at Site-1(S1) is 0.951 followed by Site-2(S2) is 0.947 and Site-3(S3) is 0.932. This indicated the greater fish biodiversity in site-1 when compared to other two centres. Further, another index such as Shannon Weiner index (H) was also used to assess the richness of fish diversity of all three sites. In this study an effort has been made to evaluate the fish species diversity in the region and suggests mitigating measures.