Asian-Pacific Aquaculture 2019

June 19 - 21, 2019

Chennai Tamil Nadu - India

GEOSPATIAL ANALYSIS OF AQUATIC RESOURCES OF SHI YOMI DISTRICT, ARUNACHAL PRADESH FOR STRATEGIC SUPPORT TO TROUT FISHERIES DEVELOPMENT IN EASTERN HIMALAYAN REGION

Deepjyoti Baruah*, Parvaiz A. Ganie, Kishor Kunal and Ravindra Posti
ICAR-Directorate of Coldwater Fisheries Research, Bhimtal-263136, Nainital, Uttarakhand
Corresponding author: deep_baruah@rediffmail.com
 

The district of Shi Yomi carved out from West Siang district located along the Indo-China border of Arunachal Pradesh is laid between 94°00ʹ - 94°60ʹ E longitude and 28°15ʹ - 29°00ʹ N latitude and encompasses an area of approximately 2803.02 km2. The topography of the district is mostly mountainous and falls within higher mountain zone of the Eastern Himalayas and thus giving rise to numerous perennial river valleys, high altitudinal wetlands and home to indigenous and exotic trout of economic importance. Spatial assessment of these aquatic resources and understanding the range of land use pattern affecting their distribution supports to the decision context in framing strategies and developing action plans for trout fisheries improvement in this hill locked district of Arunachal Pradesh. The basic morphometry of the aquatic resources reveals that the river Siyom and Yargyap chu are the two major river drainage systems and flows a distance of 59 km and 53 km having stream frequency of fifth and fourth order respectively. The first order streams accounts 975 in numbers and flows for a total length of 1592.51 kms followed by second order (197 numbers, 419.65 kms length), third order (67 numbers, 247.62 kms), fourth order (14 numbers, 180.99 km) and fifth order (1 number, 16.95 km). The wetlands in the form of upland lakes are 41 in numbers and covers an area of 219.74 hectare. The average size of the wetlands under the altitudinal regime of 4000-5000m MSL (68%) is 7.08±12.17 hectare and under 3000-4000m MSL (32%) is 3.55±4.42 hectare. The road buffer analysis showed 70.09 ha of the wetlands are rested at an altitudinal regime of 4000-5000m MSL from their nearest transport lines and scattered within the range of 10-20 km followed with 53.90 ha within 5-10 km and 24.72 ha within 0-5 km. Eight categories of Land Use Land Cover (LULC) were classified for the district where forest covers 75% of the total area followed with snow area (17%), wasteland (7%), human habitation (1%) and rest of very meagre percentage. The slope class developed from Digital Elevation Model (DEM) shows 0-21 degree in 28% of the total geographic area as compared to slope class 21-36 degree (47% area) and the slope class 36-78 degree (25% area). Furthermore, it can be inferred from DEM that the elevation class ranging from below 1000m to 3000m encompassing 59% of the total geographic area can provide suitable sites for undertaking aquaculture activities provided the other conditions are conducive as compared to 41% area above 3000m elevation. Based on these selected input feature classes superimposed in the spatial analyst ArcGIS v 10.6.1, the probable trout fish farming areas were identified highly suitable in an area of 34.77 km2 in the slope range of 0-10 degree and moderately suitable in an area of 51.34 km2 in the slope range of 10-20 degree range in the district of Shi Yomi.