Fauna of Budhabalanga Estuary, Balasore District, Odisha (w.s.r. to Fishes and Crustaceans)

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Language: English

The estuarine systems of Mahanadi, Brahmani, Baitarani, Subarnarekha, Rushikulya, Bhdhabalang etc. in the Indian state of Odisha are extensive and support a rich aquatic biodiversity in addition to providing many ecological services. These estuaries provide valuable commercial resources like fishes, molluscs, crabs, prawns, shrimps, etc. to the people of rural areas settled around and offering many livelihood options. Biodiversity studies made on these estuaries are scanty, and no studies on Budhabalanga estuary have been made so far. In view of this paucity of studies, the authors made an attempt to study the faunal composition with special reference to fishes and crustaceans of the Budhabalanga estuary. The studies revealed the occurrence of 121 species of fish, 31 species of crustaceans (17 species of prawn; 14 species of crabs), 15 species of gastropods and 6 species of bivalves in the estuary. About 24 species of fishes (marked with an asterisk in the systematic list) are found to be the first distributional records of the estuaries of Odisha.

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