Papers presented at the Workshop on Germplasm Inventory and Genebanking of Freshwater Fishes, held at Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute, Cochin, India in 1998; organized by National Bureau of Fish Genetic Resources.

Biodiversity is declining at an alarming rate due to anthropogenic activities around the world. This book is the first volume in the new series Biodiversity Hotspots of the World, which highlights the 36 hotspot regions of the world, regions that were designated as reaping maximum benefit from preservation efforts. This series is our humble attempt to document these hotspots as a conservation and preservation measure. This first volume in the series focuses on the Western Ghats and Sri Lanka, construed as forming a community of species because of their shared biogeographical history. The volume explores the diversity and conservation efforts of the extraordinarily rich species found here, including plants, many of which are found nowhere else in the world; forests, which face tremendous population pressure and have been dramatically impacted by demands for timber and agricultural land; as well as the hotspot’s diverse mammals, birds, insects, and amphibian species, and more. The volumes in this series will be essential resources for researchers and practitioners in the fields of conservation biology, ecology, and evolution.

Growing human populations and higher demands for water impose increasing impacts and stresses upon freshwater biodiversity. Their combined effects have made these animals more endangered than their terrestrial and marine counterparts. Overuse and contamination of water, overexploitation and overfishing, introduction of alien species, and alteration of natural flow regimes have led to a 'great thinning' and declines in abundance of freshwater animals, a 'great shrinking' in body size with reductions in large species, and a 'great mixing' whereby the spread of introduced species has tended to homogenize previously dissimilar communities in different parts of the world. Climate change and warming temperatures will alter global water availability, and exacerbate the other threat factors. What conservation action is needed to halt or reverse these trends, and preserve freshwater biodiversity in a rapidly changing world? This book offers the tools and approaches that can be deployed to help conserve freshwater biodiversity.

This book is an up to date compendium of all information available up to 1997 in respect of the freshwater fish fauna of this region . The classification adopted is generally after Nelson's Fishes of the World (1994), Howes (1991) with inputs from Eschmeyer's Genera of Fishes (1990). For Cyprinine genera the order of an arrangement proposed by Rainborth (1991) has been adhered to. In respect of nemacheilines the arrangement proposed by Banarescu and Nalbant (1995), Kottelat (1990) have been followed. As indicated in the title the Indian region as conceived here includes India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Mayanmar, Nepal and Sri Lanka within their political boundaries. Afghanistan and other border areas excluded. All primary freshwater fishes are definitely listed and many secondary and peripheral species that visit freshwater are also included. A uniform pattern of citation is adopted. Brief salient features of all the taxa up to orders are given. Descriptive details in respect of families and genera are provided more elaborately. Synonymies include the latest valid name, first reference, type-designations and more important pertinent references to that taxa. All citations have been checked, and cross-checked with the aid of Eschmeyer's work. Species are not described but listed alphabetically with their known range of distribution, but genera are described and arranged according to their known phylogenetic and intergeneric affinities. Keys are provided and simple drawings illustrating characters where needed are given. Synonyms, notes on species, genera, nomenclatural clarifications are given as foot-notes against relevant species marked with an asterisk, but in the foot-note the same serial number alone is cited and not the full species name. Figures depicting a representative of most genera can be seen; for many genera the more common species are illustrated as plate figures. A total of 272 genera with 852 species falling under 71 families and 16 orders are dealt with in this book. A glossary of 218 technical terms with adequate illustrations and a bibliography of 649 references are given. 241 figures and 18 plates are in the book. An addenda made up to date carries brief information of one new genus, 11 new species and one new subspecies.

World Bank Discussion Paper No. 337. Draws on household survey data from 87 rural villages in Bangladesh to examine the contribution that government family planning programs, as well as other health care interventions, have made toward the recent reduction in fertility by increasing contraceptive use and reducing infant mortality. The paper suggests that the programs have been effective and finds that targeted credit program placement, such as the Grameen Bank and the Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee (BRAC), contributed to the effort as well.

Currently 20,000-30,000 species of fish are identified in the diverse aquatic ecosystems globally, as a result in a freshwater ecosystem everyday new species are including by the researchers in the area of Ichthyology diversity. Generally, 24000 fish species listed scientifically in the global scenario, in that, nearer to 11% are available in Indian aquatic environment. Among them, 2200 species so far recorded, 3.32% belongs to the cold freshwater ecosystem, 24.73% belongs to the warm fresh waters bodies, 6.50% belongs to the brackish waters and 65.45% belongs to the ocean system. In that, the fish biodiversity of the Karnataka shares the richness of species around 240, in Cauvery river belt of Southern Karnataka share around 109 species, in Krishna river belt of Northern share around 168 species, in Kali river belt of Western Karnataka share 124 species and Karnaja river belt of Eastern Karnataka share 59 species of fishes distributed as a 102 genera, 38 families and 14 orders covering whole Karnataka fish diversity. Among these total fish species, 3 orders dominating with diverse species richness by the composition of Cypriniformes covering 5 families, 45 genera and 140 species, whereas order Siluriformes covering 9 families, 24 genera and 51 species and in Perciformes covering 9 families, 15 genera and 26 species. It has been also recognized as around 40 species under the list of threatened, 5 species are critically endangered, 22 species are endangered and 13 are vulnerable as per the red data book. As conservation strategies, researchers were involved with selective breeding method to enrich the native fish species and it may help to reduce or mitigate the problem of fish species diversity in Karnataka.

A global assessment of the current state of freshwater fish biodiversity and the opportunities and challenges to conservation.