Fishing Methods of River Cauvery (Western Ghats, India) in Altered Habitat Conditions

Abstract

River Cauvery is the third largest river in peninsular India. With the increasing demand of water for different social sectors, the entire river course was greatly altered due to water diversion by several dams, anicuts, and barrages. These modifications have its visible influence on the river habitat, flora and fauna - diversity, distribution, behaviour, etc. Based on the prevailing habitat conditions of the river and available fish species at various zones, fishers have modified their fishing gears to harvest the fish fauna in all the ecological niche within the river. The fishing practices followed along the river Cauvery were observed to be traditional but modified to suit the nature of fishing grounds. The present study recorded 31 different types of fishing gears including destructive fishing from river Cauvery.