Geospatial analysis of fishery resources in west Kameng District of Arunachal Pradesh

The spatial assessment of the aquatic resources of a region is of immense support in understanding the range of land use patterns in framing strategies and developing action plans for fisheries improvement especially in hill locked districts of the Indian Himalayan Region. The basic morphometry of the aquatic resources of West Kameng district of Arunachal Pradesh in the Eastern Himalayas revealed that the river Kameng was the major river drainage system and flowed a distance of 118.36 km, having a combined length of 6683.93 km with stream frequency of seventh order. The upland lakes were 102 in numbers and covered an area of 306.62 ha situated within the altitude range of above 4000m MSL. The maximum numbers of upland lakes (94.11%) were within the 1-2 km of the nearest transport lines. Eight categories of Land Use Land Cover (LULC) were classified for the district where forest area covered (71.13%) of the total area followed with wasteland (19.53%), shifting cultivation (5.38%), human habitation (0.38%) agricultural land (0.31%), grassland, (0.07%) water bodies (0.88%) and snow area (2.31%). The slope class developed from DEM showed 25.06 per cent of the total geographic area fall under 0-20 degree slope class as compared to slope class 20-40 degree (56.28%) and the slope class above 40 degree covering 18.66 per cent area. The aquaculture suitability site of the district based on the altitude showed three crucial zones and was categorized as most suitable, moderate and least suitable with the slope classes.