Abstract. The Western Ghats of India is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and is one of the
eight “hotspots” of biological diversity in the world. It is also referred
to as the “Great Escarpment of India”. This paper provides information on
the diversity of freshwater fish fauna of six river systems of the southern
Western Ghats. The study area has been identified geographically using a GPS,
and the respective topographic map has been digitized using ArcGIS software.
The fish fauna were collected from various streams and rivers using cast
nets, dip nets, gill nets and drag nets. Among the 31 georeferenced sites
sampled from the rivers of the southern Western Ghats, a total of 64 species,
belonging to 6 orders, 14 families and 31 genera, were recorded. Among them,
the order Cypriniformes was dominant, with 3 families, 18 genera and 49
species (76.6 %). Principal component analysis and cluster analysis were
performed to express the contribution of the variables and their influence on
the species diversity. Interestingly, of the 31 sites, Thunakadavu stream,
Gulithuraipatti, Athirapally,
Naduthotam, Nadathittu, Mullaithodu, Thonanthikla, Noolpuzha and
Sinnaru exhibited
high variation in species diversity. Nearly 15 species were found to be
threatened in the Western Ghats. Garra periyarensis and
Cirrhinus cirrhosus are known to be vulnerable and
Hemibagrus punctatus is critically endangered because of various
anthropogenic activities. The study clearly indicates that certain timely
measures have to be taken immediately to protect the fish fauna in the
southern Western Ghats (https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.882214).