CIFRI records 230 fish speciesin Ganga, highest in 50 years
Times of India | 15 January 2026
Kolkata: The ICAR Central Inland Fisheries Research Institute (ICAR-CIFRI), headquartered in Barrackpore, has recorded 230 fish species across different stretches of the Ganga river, which originates in the Himalayas and flows about 2,525 km south-east through Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand and Bengal before entering Bangladesh and emptying into the Bay of Bengal.
This marks the highest fish diversity in the river in over half a century. When the first survey was conducted in 1822, Ganga had 271 fish species. By the time the next survey was carried out around 150 years later, in 1974, the number had declined to 207. That diversity fell further to 172 species in 1991 and reached a low of 110 species in 1998. Subsequent restoration efforts by CIFRI began yielding results, with the count rising to 162 species in 2004 before dipping to 143 in 2012. The latest study, conducted in 2023, recorded 230 fish species.
The highest species counts were recorded at Bijnor (109) and Narora (93) in UP. In Bengal, Farakka recorded the highest number of species at 85, followed by Berhampore (76), Frazerganj (70), Balagarh (66) and Tribeni (63). Considerably fewer species were recorded at Diamond Harbour (38) and Gadkhali (32). As a part of the survey, fisheries and ecological data were collected from 33 tributaries and six floodplain wetlands across the Gangetic basin.
To conserve and restore fish populations, ICAR-CIFRI carried out 167 ranching activities involving Indian Major Carps (IMC) — Rohu, Catla and Mrigal — as well as Mahseer, releasing 203.4 lakh fingerlings into the river. The release of fish spawn and eggs into river waters aims at stock enhancement, ranching and restoration of riverine fisheries.
"The impact of ranching is clearly reflected in the increased landings of IMC, with rises of 24.7% at Prayagraj and 41% at Varanasi compared to 1959, demonstrating the effectiveness of stock enhancement interventions," CIFRI director Basanta Kumar Das said.
Since 2010,3.8 lakh adult Hilsa have been released upstream of the Farakka barrage in the Ganga river, of which 6,031 fish were tagged. The recovery rate of tagged Hilsa was 9%.The species was recovered as far upstream as Ballia in UP, indicating a gradual extension of its range over time. Additionally, 54.9 lakh fertilised Hilsa eggs and 8.1 lakh Hilsa spawn were released upstream of the Farakka barrage to improve the natural Hilsa population.