• Vipin Kumar
• D.S. MALIK
• AMIT KUMAR SHARMA

Macro-benthic invertebrates are important indicator of water quality as well as ecological disturbance. The community that lived in the bottom of water i.e. in streams, rivers, ponds etc are known as “benthos”. During the present investigative studies of the River Ganga and its tributaries, slight variation in the distribution of macro-benthic invertebrate fauna was observed in the upstream as well as downstream sections. Analytical study of River Ganga and its tributaries revealed the presence of 9 taxa predominantly belonging to following groups, Ephemeroptera (4 species), Hemiptera (3 species), Diptera (5 species), Coleoptera (4 species), Plecoptera (3 species), Trichoptera (3 species), Odonatan (2 species), Mollusca (1 species), Annelida (1species). Amongst these 9 groups, Ephemeroptera was dominated both in qualitative and quantitative dominance over the other eight groups. Ephemeropterans, Plecopterans, and Trichopterans which are commonly known as pollution sensitive species were found to be numerically abundant in the upstream sections and downstream sections. On the other hand pollution tolerant species of order Coleoptera, Odonata, Diptera, and class Oligochaeta were also present but in lesser number in the downstream sections. Numerical abundance of Emphemera sp. and Emhemerella sp. throughout the experimental period reflected that there are lesser anthropogenic stresses on the River and its tributaries. The present also study revealed that the combined impact of water quality parameters such as water temperature, TDS, the velocity of water, turbidity and DO influenced the diversity of macro-benthos population dwelling Ganga river and its tributaries.

Macro-benthos, Water quality, Shannon diversity, Ganga River

"STUDY ON DISTRIBUTION PATTERN OF BENTHIC DIVERSITY IN RELATION TO WATER QUALITY OF RIVER GANGA AND ITS TRIBUTARIES ", International Journal of Emerging Technologies and Innovative Research (www.jetir.org), ISSN:2349-5162, Vol.5, Issue 5, page no.88-103, May-2018, Available :http://www.jetir.org/papers/JETIR1805444.pdf

"STUDY ON DISTRIBUTION PATTERN OF BENTHIC DIVERSITY IN RELATION TO WATER QUALITY OF RIVER GANGA AND ITS TRIBUTARIES ", International Journal of Emerging Technologies and Innovative Research (www.jetir.org | UGC and issn Approved), ISSN:2349-5162, Vol.5, Issue 5, page no. pp88-103, May-2018, Available at : http://www.jetir.org/papers/JETIR1805444.pdf