SIFs are the indigenous fish which are attaining a maximum length of 25-30cm in mature or adult stage of their lifecycle. SIF are very important from fisheries, livelihood development and nutrition security point of view. Most of the SIF fish catch are not reported and are  directly consumed by the fishers indicating the importance of SIF for nutritional point of view.

Experimental fishing was carried out in the wetland using gill net with different mesh sizes ranging from 1 to 4cm to assess the SIF diversity. As the SIF catch were mostly consumed directly by the local fishermen and were not properly recorded by the Fishermen Cooperative Society, the SIF catch data were also collected from the local fishermen using a questionnaire prepared by ICAR-CIFRI.

During the study period 19 SIFs species were observed in the wetland. The family cyprinidae contributed the highest number of species with 8 species. The species richness and the   abundance were higher in the monsoon season as compared to the other seasons. The SIFs annual catch was the highest during 2011 and the lowest was observed during 2020.

SIF are mostly catch by small mesh size gill net, local made trap, push net, hook and line and lantern net. Most of the gears are operated singly by the fishers. In most of the cases, the fish catches are not properly reported to the concerned fisheries cooperative society and are consumed directly by the fisher which has direct benefit for nutritional security and livelihood improvement. Around 10 gill net, 1 push net, 3 hook and line, 3 lantern net and 3 traps per fishers were owned by the individual fisher of the wetland. The majority (60%) of the SIF catch was attributed by gill net followed by push net (15%), trap (10%), lantern net (10%) and hook and line (5%).