Ichthyofauna of East Siang District, Arunachal Pradesh, India

Arunachal Pradesh, the easternmost state of India, forms a part of Eastern Himalaya global biodiversity hotspot (Myers et al., 2000) and is also among the 200 globally important ecoregions (Olson and Dinerstein, 1998). Its unique geophysical location in the transition zone between the Palearctic and Orioental biogeogrpahic regions is one of prime reasons for its rich biodiversity. Being in the ecotone of the two regions, due to edge effect, the state possess biotic elements from both the regions as well as have its exclusive components and thus represent Indo-Chinese, Indo-Malayan, Indo-Burmese and Indian biotic components. This had earned the state the distinction of one of the main corridor for eastern entrant of the Indian sub-region (Borang, 2001).