HAFLONG, Jan 22 - The biodiversity conservation fraternity, and the people of the district have appealed to all persons, visiting the Dilaima river and waterfalls not to use nets or other unethical methods to catch or poison the last stock of coldwater river fish and the last coldwater river fish breeding area left in Dima Hasao.
They said that Dilaima river was one of the few surviving biodiversity hotspots left in the district, inhabited by the last surviving coldwater river fish stock. And maybe an undiscovered coldwater-river fish species or an unknown aquatic organism might be still left in the depths of the Dilaima river. They prayed to understand that the unethical methods to catch or poison might be leading a species to extinction.
It is learnt that a coldwater fish survey was conducted in 2012 by SK Gupta, a coldwater fish research scientist from DCFR (Directorate of Coldwater Fisheries Research - Uttarakhand) with active support from Spectrum (NGO) under the guidance of Sarbojit Thaosen, Asstt Professor, Zoology, Haflong Govt. College. It was during that research, that they came to know from the research scientist about the dwindling coldwater river fish diversity in the river ecosystem of the district. Due to poisoning of rivers with insecticides/pesticides/bleaching powder etc., increase in the temperature of the rivers and other human induced factors, the coldwater-river fish species was dwindling over the last few years at an alarming rate. And only a few rivers like Dalaima due to its topography, cold water temperature and less human interference still sustains the coldwater-river fish species stock.
Sarbojit Thaosen said that the �garra� species from that river has been described recently and has been accepted as new species, the name of the new species is Garra clavirostris. Also, there are about ten unidentified specimens waiting to be described, collected from different sites of Diyung, Mahur and Jatinga rivers. So, it is also equally important to conserve these rivers of the district because no one has explored them till date.