Maharashtra's Sindhudurg Where A Rare Fish Species Was Found Named Biodiversity Heritage Site
Following the discovery of a rare freshwater fish species there, the Maharashtra government has declared an area at Amboli in Western ghats in Sindhudurg district as a biodiversity heritage site.
The notification to convert the locality into a protected area was issued on Wednesday under the Biological Diversity Act, 2002.
Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray¡¯s son Tejas Thackeray, who is a wildlife researcher, and his team had discovered the new freshwater fish species ¡ª Schistura Hiranyakeshi ¡ª near Amboli in Sawantwadi tehsil of Sindhudurg district.
The development came after Schistura hiranyakeshi, rare freshwater fish was spotted for the first time in the Western Ghats in a pond at the Mahadev Temple at Amboli.
Following this, the 2.11 hector area has been declared as 'Shistura Hiranyakeshi Biological Heritage Site', making it the 5th area in Maharashtra. The heritage site which has a temple of goddess Parvati is the point from where the river Hiranyakeshi originates.
Earlier, the State government had declared the Glory of Allapalli in Gadchiroli district, Landor Khori Park in Jalgaon, Ganesh Khind in Pune, myristica swamp vegetation in Sindhudurg district as biodiversity heritage sites.
Schistura Hiranyakeshi is a rare sub-species of Schistura, a freshwater loach and was named after the Hiranyakeshi river near Amboli village.
Hiranyakeshi is a small and colourful fish that lives in water and streams in an abundance of oxygen and is endemic to this area.
¡°The decision to declare the habitat of these freshwater species as the bio-diversity heritage site is taken because it is rare species, and due to fishing activities, it might have faced extinction. It was important to conserve the species,¡± reads the government notification.
The discoveries of the freshwater fish species were published in the International Journal of Ichthyology in the October 2020 edition by Tejas Thackeray, the son of Maharashtra CM and co-authors.
Tejas Thackeray, who is also the trustee of Thackeray Wildlife Foundation (TWF), had written a letter to the forest secretary in the first week of March requesting for conservation activities for the protection of this habitat.
