Rajnandgaon district has many hilly forests, plateau areas and varied natural aquatic resources suitable for agriculture and fisheries. Because biodiversity is important for sustainable ecosystem conservation so this district was selected for the study purpose. Fish diversity studies were done in the Seonath river basin. The fishes were collected during the period November 2011 to May 2012.
Total of 59 species belonging to 36 genera, 20 families and 7 orders were recorded from 4 sampling sites respectively 1. Mongara reservoir (Seonath basin) 2. Rajnandgaon fish market 3. Ambagarh Chowaki Anicut 4. Ranisagar & Budhasagar talab with six new species: Crossocheilus latius, Colisa lalia, Labeo dero, Labeo dyocheilus, Pseudambassis lala, and Ompok pabda which were not recorded earlier studies in Chhattisgarh. The family Cyprinidae with 26 species forms the largest single group in the fish fauna of Seonath river basin and their catchments. Likewise 09 species were assessed for threat as per NBFGR criteria, there are one endangered species and eight vulnerable species.