Bangladesh is a great delta formed by three mighty Himalayan rivers: the Ganges, the Brahmaputra and the Meghna. Moreover, landscape of Bangladesh is almost flat except eastern areas, but its biogeographic realms divided by international borders (India by the West, East & North and Myanmar by the south-eastern) affect the floral and faunal diversity in a drastic manner. A transboundary river is a river that crosses at least one political boarder, either a border within a state or an international boundary. There are more than 400 rivers in Bangladesh. Out of them only 54 are transboundary rivers (54 shares with India and 3 shares with Myanmar). Most freshwater fishes have an innate tendency to move across long riverine distances without the restriction of any political boundaries. However, the equitable sharing of biological resources, especially for ichthyofauna, is often affected in transboundary riverine systems. Hence, the estimation of spatial diversity and conservation of biodiversity elements in transboundary regions are a major cause of concern for protecting the biodiversity wealth of any country. Fishes from transboundary rivers of north-eastern area in Bangladesh seem unexplored using integrative taxonomy approaches i.e. molecular, morphology, meristic and ecology data. To unveil the hidden biodiversity of fishes from the transboundary rivers, proposed research is initiated to make a error free, accurate freshwater species list in Bangladesh.
Figure: Received a cheque of 915 USD (FY 2023-2024 Research Project) from Honorable Vice-Chancellor of BSFMSTU.
