Performance analysis of Fish Passes at hydraulic structures constructed on River sutlej

Fishways or fish passes provide a continuity of flow enabling the fishes or other aquatic fauna to cross the hydraulic structures like dams, barrages, weirs, or navigation locks to reach their spawning grounds and returning afterwards. With the ever increasing demand of irrigation and hydro power, there has been an increase in number of hydraulic structures on rivers thereby fragmenting rivers. This delays or blocks the migration of the fishes through the river essential for their life cycle. Thus providing the fish passes to facilitate the fish migration is necessary. Fish passes on hydraulic structures in India are very few and even there the few which exist have proven to be ineffective due to improper designs. This paper presents study of the fish passes installed on hydraulic structures on Sutlej River. Few fish passes existing on Sutlej were evaluated for their design parameters and performance. In order to analyze the performance various parameters like discharge, velocity and energy dissipation through the fish passes were evaluated and analyzed. Based on these evaluations the performance of the fish passes was determined. This evaluation not only helps in determining the effectiveness of the fish passes but also provides valuable information for their modification but also for designing new fish passes at existing structures on the same river.