News: A new species of Freshwater Shrimp in Kutch, Gujarat has been discovered by scientists and researchers, the new species are part of genus Caridina and have been named “Caridina Kutchi” after the Kutch District of Gujarat.

Professor Pranav Pandya, a Marine Biologist and the co-author of a paper that was made about the discovery said, “The new species has been found from Khari River of semi-arid region of Kutch peninsula in Gujarat and is identified to be new to the science. We have named the new species as Caridina Kutchi.”

The paper made about the discovery is authored by Professor Pranav Pandya and Dr. Jasmine Richard of the Natural History Museum’s Invertebrates Division and Department of Life Sciences in London England.

The paper by Professor Pranav Pandya and Dr. Jasmine Richard was recently published in Zootaxa, an international published scientific journal.

Professor Pranav Pandya added, “Caridina Kutchi species is the first Caridina species to be described from Kutch, which is known for its complex geological set up. The species belongs to genus Caridina which are seen in aquatic water bodies and are very less studied in the western India. This species serves as ecological filters of water bodies. We were working on this species since a year because of some of its distinct features. As it was a different species, we worked on it. Dr. Jasmine Richard, the co-author of the paper on this species, helped a lot and validated it to be a new species,’’

When asked about the discovery and its name, Professor Pranav Pandya said, “We have been working on the species since a year and once it was established that this was a new discovery, we decided to name it after the Kutch region, an ecologically diverse area.”

Professor Pranav Pandya is currently working on a research project that is authorized by the Indian Government for the intertidal animals of the Gulf of Kutch.

The professor added that the recent discovery will help other scientists get encouraged to work on the newly found species status and distribution in the country.