2020 Vol.26 No.2 PP 271-278

https://doi.org/10.33451/florafauna.v26i2pp271-278

Microflora and fauna of the river Ganga in pristine conditions of Harsil, India

^*Kalpana Srivastava, Sandeep Misra, Hariom Verma, Venkatesh R. Thakur, Dharm Nath Jha and Basanta Kumar Das¹

Regional centre,
ICAR-Central Inland Fisheries Research Institute,
ALLAHABAD–211002 (U.P.) INDIA
¹ICAR-Central Inland Fisheries Research Institute,
BARRACKPORE-700 120 (W.B.) INDIA
*Corresponding Author : Email : kalpana.cifri@gmail.com

ABSTRACT

The present study was conducted to document the flora and fauna from pristine of Harshil. During the study the water temperature at Harsil (31002’10’’N and 78048’19’’ E) was very low (2.5-11.7C 0C) and velocity was very high (0.8-1.5 m/s,) with 0.2-1.5 m river depth. The present study revealed (2017 May to Jan 2020) total 49 taxa (44 flora and 5 fauna). Wherein floral taxa belonged to Bacillariophyceae -28, Chlorophyceae -11, and Myxophyceae-5, while fauna belonged to Rotifera-3 and Protozoa-2. Planktonic abundance at Harsil ranged from 10 ul-1to 360 ul-1and periphytic population ranged between 40µcm-2 to 11,150 µcm-2. In the study bacillariophyceae noticed as dominant floral group at Harsil. So climatic changes resulted in occurrence of various planktonic groups, as previously only diatoms were recorded.

Key words : Biodiversity, Harsil, Periphyton, Plankton, Pristine conditions, River Ganga.