Macrozoobenthos as Indicators of Pollution in River Jhelum of Kashmir Himalayas

The River Jhelum (an important tributary of Indus River) is main drainage system of Kashmir valley originating from Pir Panjal range of Himalayan mountains connected by all other lentic and lotic habitats in the valley. For present study four sites were selected in river Jhelum as Khanabal Batengu (siteI), Zero bridge in Srinagar city (siteII), Gantimulla at Baramula (SiteIII) in most densely populated areas with different types of anthropogenic activities adding different types of affluent to the river and a site in the lower reaches with least human interference and least discharge from the catchment was also selected as site IV at Dachi bridge in Uri. The River system showed an appreciable change in the chemical parameters during the study. The mean conductivity of the water ranged between177 S and 306 S and alkalinity from pH- 7.9 to 8.2, hardness from 165 236 mg/L. The inorganic nitrogen (as nitrate nitrogen) of the river recorded in the higher side of 181 g/l to 317g/l, total phosphorus from 79 g/l to 228 g/l along with other parameters showed that river receives heavy load of nutrients from the catchment along the first three sites of river than at last stretch of river segment in Uri Baramullah. In response to changing physico-chemical charecteristics of water in river Jhelum, the macro-invertebrate fauna of the sites was more or less similar in first three sites of river Jhelum and were dominated by Annelids, Molluscs and Diptera with representative species of Tubifex sp, Limnodrillus sp, Erpobdella sp, Corbicula sp, Chironomus larva and Monodiamessa sp. which are considered to be the bio-indicators of pollution. The presence of such type of macrobenthic fauna in the river indicates the deterioration of water quality due to high anthropogenic activites going on in the aquatic environment which will affect the overall biological scenario particularly to the fish in the system.