‘A freshwater mussel apocalypse is underway—and no one knows why,’ says a 2019 National Geographic article. It chronicles the sudden deaths of the mussels of the Clinch River in Virginia-Tennessee. The question might arise why there is a need to be concerned about freshwater mussels or their disappearance in the first place. The answer is two folds: monetary and ecological.
David L. Strayer of Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies estimates the wholesale value of freshwater mussels from a single reservoir fishery in the US to be in the range of a few million dollars per year, and the ecological cost or indirect use value of single species in a single lake is about a 100 million US dollars. The purpose of these figures is to help the reader put into perspective the relevance of this article.
The National Geographic article calls the great dying of freshwater mussels across Europe and America ‘one of the biggest ecological mysteries of the decade’. Yet, half a world away, in India, a very similar ‘apocalypse’ is unfolding. A study notes, “The freshwater mussels of India are poorly known compared to that of the other countries. Therefore the study on distribution of freshwater mussels and their conservation, in India, will aid in sustaining natural ecosystems.”
Lamellidens jenkinsianus daccaensis, of class Bivalvia and family Unionoidea, is a shiny brown mussel found in the rivers of the Indian subcontinent. Little is known about the distribution and conversation status of these. However, in 2005, a paper by Nessman, described these creatures as being endemic to the Gangetic delta, while another, in 2015, found samples of the same in Telangana near the Nagarjuna Sagar Dam.
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