Hyderabad: The ongoing research on fish diversity by researchers from Osmania University has resulted in the discovery of Ganges River Sprat Corica soborna for the first time from peninsular India from the hill stream near Talai village in Kumarambheem Asifabad district. This hill stream subsequently joins the Pranahita river ā a tributary of the Godavari river.
This species is so far found only in river Ganga and its tributary from Uttar Pradesh in the west to Bangladesh in the east. This species has also been once reported from Ponani Estuary in Kerala. Other then India, it has also been recorded in Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore.
This species was collected by Kante Krishna Prasad of the department of zoology and Md. Younus of the Centre for Biodiversity and Conservation Studies of Osmania University. The record of this species has been published in the recent issues of an international research journal ā Journal of Threatened Taxa.
The researchers discovered this rare species of fish along with many native species, including the Telangana endemic Bakalu fish Rita bakalu. "The discovery of the Ganges River Sprat ā which is known as Kechki in Bengali - in the Godavari river basin of Telangana state is interesting and indicates that more scientific surveys and studies are needed to detect the rich species diversity occurring in the state," said Chelmala Srinivasulu, a senior assistant professor at Osmania University who headed the research.