Author(s): S Banik and Rita Roy

Abstract: Chitala chitala (Hamilton-Buchanan, 1822) a near threatened fish species of freshwater ecosystem is considered as preferred fish to the consumers due to its taste. The occurrence and abundance of this species is greatly reducing in North-Eastern India. Thus, in view of conserving the species it is undoubtedly important to identify its environmental quality. The climatic characteristics of Tripura during last two decades showed that a little by little increase in temperature became a visible feature of the environment of Tripura. Simultaneously, a slow and gradual rise in humidity was also found to be evident. On the other, rainfall was decreased quantitatively. An inverse statistical correlation was noticed between air temperature and rainfall (r =0.99, P<0.001). Similar correlation was also observed between humidity and rainfall (r =0.99, P<0.001). However, a direct relationship was evident between air temperature and humidity. The physico-chemical characteristics of the freshwater river depicted a number of characteristics which were water temperature= 12.11-32.19 0C, water velocity= 1.66 - 4.02 m/sec, pH= 6.61-7.31, DO2= 4.44 – 6.89 ppm, HCO3= 112.14 – 152.76 ppm etc. Multivariate regression analysis showed that among diverse climatic parameters and environmental factors of freshwater river, some particular parameters viz., air temperature (P <0.001), water temperature (P <0.001), humidity (P <0.001), rainfall (P <0.001), water velocity (P <0.001), depth of river (P <0.001) and CO2 (P <0.001) have had significant control over the population occurrence of Chitala chitala.

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