A group of scientists has identified a new species of loach in Meghalaya’s South Garo Hills district, near Bangladesh border, officials said on Thursday.
Loach is a freshwater bottom-dwelling fish and found across rivers in South East Asia.The species, Schistura sonarengaensis, was discovered in Sonarenga, Nakama, and Chiabol caves in the district, they added.
Funded by the ICAR - National Bureau of Fish Genetic Resources in Lucknow, the discovery was led by Dr Khlur Mukhim, principal of Lady Keane College, a team from Guwahati University, among others. The research paper was officially published on Wednesday by Wiley-Blackwell, an international Journal of Fish Biology of the Fisheries Society of the British Isles.
