Snow trout decreasing fast in Himalayan rivers: Research

Dharamshala, August 22, 2019: Scientists of the Indian Wildlife Institute, WII, have expressed their apprehension that the effects of global warming is being observed now on the Himalayan rivers fishes of cold water.
According to them, the fish living in cold water would shift to the higher reaches of the river in the summer so that it can survive in its comfort zone in the changing environment of Global warming.
In her research paper submitted in the seminar of Wildlife Institute of India, Aashna Sharma, Senior Research Fellow of WII said, “Due to the formation of dams on almost all the Himalayan rivers, these fishes are unable to shift in the upper area during summer, because of which these water creatures are unable to save themselves in the summer season.”
Talking to this reporter, Sharma said that this research was focused on the snow trout fish of the Himalayas and it is found t these special high altitude fishes are surviving nicely in their natural habitat in the rivers on which the dams are not built, like the Tirthan river of Himachal Pradesh. She added that similarly Mahaseer is being nicely survived in the Nayar River of Uttarakhand.
"Our research work indicates that, by 2050, the snow trout will vanish from 400 square kilometers of Himalayas from Jammu and Kashmir to Arunachal Pradesh". She said that this research was conducted with her colleague Dr.Vineet K Dubey and Scientists from the Wildlife Institute of India, Dr.K.Sivakumar and Dr.J.A.Johnson. This investigation was made with the help of algorithms designed by a European Scientist, Dr.Wilfried Thuiller.
She said that there should be a way for fishes to pass to the upper areas through the Dams so that such species can be saved from extinction. Aashana is basically from Dharamshala in Himachal Pradesh.