Abstract
The ecological status and the challenges faced by two floodplain wetlands, Chamta and Sindrani, located in the lower Gangetic eco-climatic region, were investigated. These wetlands are currently dealing with several problems, such as unscientific management of the fisheries, overfishing, obstruction in the connectivity barriers with the parent river, encroachment and depth reduction. The productivity of both Chamta and Sindrani wetlands was limited by floating, emergent, submerged and marginal vegetation. In the monsoon season, Shannon-Weiner index (1.289 and 1.245), Simpson index (0.933 and 0.929) and McIntosh index (0.752 and 0.746) concerning SIF were calculated for both the wetlands. The obtained SimJ and SimS values were 0.91 and 0.95, respectively, which means that both ecosystems were not fully similar in terms of fish species. Canonical correspondence analysis (CCA) revealed seasonal variation in the fish species caught was driven by environmental factors such as hardness (116.66-167.25ppm), dissolved oxygen (07.00-08.62 mg/l), conductivity (398.83-504.07 µS/cm), surface water temperature (32.32–34.43°C) and pH (07.14–08.05). The average annual production of SIFs from Chamta and Sindrani was calculated as 7215.75 kg and 13394 kg, respectively. Generalized Linear Model (GLM) analysis reveals that high-quality, sustainable, and planned management practices focusing on wetland fisheries can positively contribute to better fish species diversity in Sindrani. Particularly, species and habitat conservation efforts of Sindrani wetlands were found to be the manifestation of better fish diversity in the concerned wetlands. Our study recommends biological control of macrophytes, ensuring connectivity with adjacent rivers, scientific stocking programs and application of indigenous conservation technologies for better wetland ecosystem health; the following enhanced production will also aid in the nutritional and livelihood security of the dependent fishers.