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Binoy, V. V.

Publications and source records attributed to Binoy, V. V..

11 recordsLinked to original sources
bioRxiv2026

Insights on Human Dimensions of Freshwater Fish Conservation in Jharkhand and Bihar, India

Conservation outcomes in the socio-economically disadvantaged regions are strongly influenced by human behaviour, social norms, and existing governance mechanisms. This study examined stakeholder attitudes, perceptions, values, norms and decision-making processes associated with the conservation of freshwater fishes in two neighbouring states in Eastern India - Jharkhand and Bihar. An approach integrating the Conservation Planning Framework (CPF) with the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) and Social Values (SV) enabled the development of four interlinked themes: "livelihood and economic prioritisation over conservation", "constraints on participation", "values and conservation willingness" and "erosion of social and cultural memories of mahseer", indicative of a process of dual extinction faced by these iconic freshwater fishes. Despite the widespread positive attitudes of the stakeholders towards native fishes and freshwater ecosystems, conservation intentions and actions in both states were found to be negatively influenced by feeble communication, prioritisation of aquaculture, institutional rigidity, inadequate conservation education, limited actual behavioural control (ABC) and subjective norms-driven livelihood pressures. However, the presence of active fishermen cooperative societies and stronger relational values among the local communities makes Jharkhand better equipped to implement participatory governance and stakeholder-involved conservation engagement plans. By strategically linking CPF, TPB, and SV, this study demonstrates how human attitudes, behaviour, social norms, and institutional structures interact to shape freshwater fish conservation outcomes in regions where livelihood needs intersect with conservation priorities, thereby offering actionable insights for managing the native freshwater fish diversity.

ecology↗
bioRxiv2025

From Attitudes to Actions: Bridging Conservation Planning Framework, Theory of Planned Behaviour and Social Values to Protect Charismatic Freshwater Fishes, the Mahseer

Mahseers are a group of iconic freshwater fishes native to the waterbodies of South, East, and South-East Asia, with significant ecological, socio-cultural, and livelihood value. The complexity of the socio-ecological contexts in which the mahseer conservation occurs demand an approach integrating behavioural dimensions of the individuals and groups directly or indirectly involved in it and social and cultural values they hold for these fishes with the conservation planning and implementation processes for better results. This study examined different facets of the mahseer conservation across three environmentally, geographically, and socio-culturally distinct Indian states - Karnataka, Assam, and Uttarakhand under a framework integrating Conservation Planning Framework (CPF) with the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) and Social Values (SV). Across all the focal states, three key themes were constructed - consensus between stakeholders, communication and collaboration, and values and moral responsibility. Our analyses revealed that while shared ecological concerns offered an opportunity for the collective conservation actions, inter-stakeholder conflicts, communication gaps, hesitation to collaborate, top-down governance, and restricted decision-making autonomy available to tribal and local communities acted as the barriers. Stakeholders from all three states demonstrated strong pro-conservation attitudes, moral responsibility, perceived capability to implement the conservation plans and culturally embedded value for mahseer, rooted in religious beliefs, tribal and local identities and recreational traditions. However, on ground analysis revealed a low actual behavioural control amongst many stakeholders limiting translation of the positive elements present in their attitudes and values into tangible conservation outcomes. Our observations emphasise formalising community-based co-management, strengthening inter-departmental coordination, building conservation capacity, adopting socio-culturally grounded communication strategies and repositioning community fishing events as socio-ecological heritage to ensure stakeholder compliance of the existing mahseer conservation plans and improve its success. Furthermore, aligning conservation planning with behavioural drivers and social values could offer more vital insights for formulating inclusive strategies and policies for protecting mahseers and managing their habitats.

ecology↗
bioRxiv2025

Mapping Minds to Manage the Tiger of Rivers: A Fuzzy Cognitive Mapping Approach to Understanding Multi-Stakeholder Perspectives on Mahseer Conservation

Conservation of mahseers, a group of charismatic freshwater fishes native to the South, East and South-East Asia, situated at the intersection of complex social, ecological and economic landscapes, necessitates the integration of the knowledge, mental models, and expectation of different stakeholders. Using a Fuzzy Cognitive Mapping approach, this study generated collective mental models of mahseer conservation in two Indian states distinct in their geography, ecology and socio-cultural aspects - Assam and Uttarakhand. Although many core system components were similar in the cognitive map generated for the focal states, notable divergences emerged in the drivers, perceived relationships among the components, etc. indicating regional specificity in socio-cultural governance structures and stakeholder priorities. In both states stakeholder communication emerged as the most central, and the component with highest outdegree, underscoring its shaping effect on system-wide variable interactions. The other influential components were community fishing (destructive and traditional) and human-human conflict (in Assam), and illegal destructive fishing and community involvement in decision-making (in Uttarakhand). The what-if scenario analyses simulating potential interventions, demonstrated that enhancing communication, awareness and education, promoting local identity and cultural significance of community fishing, providing subsistence fishing opportunities for the locals, and community involvement in decision-making could help in reducing human-human conflicts, illegal fishing, and strengthen stakeholder collaboration for mahseer conservation in both states. Our results also indicate that these improvements alone are insufficient to result in measurable mahseer conservation outcomes until cultural revitalisation and governance reforms are integrated with habitat restoration, improved hatchery performance, evidence-based policies and strict law enforcement. We discuss various leverage points that emerged from the FCMs of both focal states and their implication for a broader mahseer conservation policy with a scope for integrating region-specific characteristics.

animal behavior and cognition↗
bioRxiv2025

'Crafting Fishy News': Framing and Attitudinal Positioning in English Newspaper Articles on Mahseer from Their Endemic Range

With the capacity to influence readers knowledge, emotions, attitudes and behaviours, newspapers play a pivotal role in conservation. We studied framing strategies and attitude positioning in articles published from January 2000 to April 2024 on mahseer, a group of freshwater fishes (56 species), by English-language newspapers from 17 nations that fall within their distribution range. However, we had to restrict our analysis to 6 nations (Bangladesh, Bhutan, Nepal, India, Pakistan and Malaysia) and 6 mahseer species (Tor khudree, T. putitora, T. remadevii, T. tor, N. hexagonolepis, and T. tambroides) due to the limited availability of substantial number of articles from other focal nations. A major share (79%) of the articles came from India, and T. putitora was the species that received the maximum attention from the newspapers (39%). Our result revealed a clear demarcation between the South-East Asian nation of Malaysia and the countries from South Asia, as well as between articles on mahseers native to these two different geographical regions, in terms of headline and text framing, choice of messengers and images, and attitude positioning in the news items. Dailies from South Asia largely employed conservation, environmental challenges and re-stocking efforts frames and promoted nature-centric, ecological and religio-cultural attitudes. By contrast, newspapers from Malaysia and the articles covering mahseer from this nation, T. tambroides reflected utility-centric and recreational framing and attitudes emphasising economic aspects. In general, episodic framing was more common than thematic, and instances of incorporating visual representations (with India as an exception) and positioning information on mahseer in the persuasive sections (exception - Nepal) were limited across focal nations and species. Our study also revealed that GenAI based Large Language Model (LLM ChatGPT 4) and Natural Language Processing (NLP) based tools (Hugging Face transformers) can be utilised as effective complementary or collaborative research tools alongside traditional manual qualitative data analysis to comprehend the framing and attitude positioning in the conservation news. Our results may help contextualise the communication strategies for conserving mahseers in South and South-East Asia, and also elucidate dimensions that need to be made salient for strengthening the connection between media and society for this purpose.

ecology↗
bioRxiv2023

Landing the 'Tiger of Rivers': Understanding Recreational Angling of Mahseers in India using YouTube Videos

Megafish mahseers popularly known as the tiger of rivers, are the dream catch of recreational anglers in India. The present study explored the Recreational Angling (RA) videos of five mahseer species Tor khudree (deccan mahseer), T. putitora (golden mahseer), T. remadevii (humpback mahseer), T. mosal (mosal mahseer) and Neolissochilus hexagonolepis (chocolate mahseer) recorded from India and uploaded on the social media platform YouTube from January 2010 to October 2022. We did not come across any RA videos of T. mosal and T. remadevii on YouTube hence further analyses were carried out on the remaining three focal species. No seasonality was observed in the frequency of RA videos uploaded on YouTube and T. khudree attracted the highest number of views per video. Catch and Release (C&R), an ethical RA practice was noticeably low in the case of N. hexagonolepis. The size of the catch was found to be positively associated with the social engagement received by the RA videos of all the three mahseer species focused. Angler and angling-related remarks and words associated with the emotion trust dominated the comments received by the videos. The results are discussed in light of the trending discourses on developing social media data as a complementary tool for monitoring and managing RA and conserving fish.

ecology↗
bioRxiv2021

Captivity-induced behaviour and spatial learning abilities in an enigmatic, aquifer-dwelling blind eel, Rakthamichthys digressus

We investigated the impact of captive life on behaviour and learning abilities in an enigmatic, aquifer-dwelling blind eel, Rakthamichthys digressus. Of eight major behavioural traits related to exploration and activity in a novel arena, four were significantly altered by life in captivity. While the startle response upon introduction into the arena and overall swimming away from the walls increased after captivity, inactivity exhibited immediately after the startle and the reaction to an external disturbance decreased. We also observed behavioural syndromes between startle responses and horizontal wall following, and between overall activity and vertical wall following; however, these behavioural syndromes were not altered by maintenance in captivity. Interestingly, this blind-eel failed to learn a simple spatial task in a Y-maze apparatus. Captive-associated behavioural changes in R. digressus may influence their survival after reintroduction into natural habitats, and such changes must be taken into account while developing protocols for ex-situ conservation and subsequent release.

animal behavior and cognition↗
bioRxiv2020

Is Boldness in Climbing Perch (Anabas testudineus) Sensitive to the Apparatus Used for Measurement?

Swimway and open field are the two popular apparatus used for measuring boldness - the propensity to take risky decisions - in various piscine species. The present study compared boldness exhibited by an air breathing freshwater fish climbing perch in a swimway, rectangular open field, intermediate stages between these two apparatus and circular open field. Impact of the modification of the start chamber by providing substratum made up of cobbles and covering the water surface using water plant hydrilla, alone and in combinations on the boldness was also tested. Our results revealed that the apparatus has a significant impact on the boldness in climbing perch. The presence of a shelter in the experimental arena (swimway) and cobble substratum in the start chamber of the apparatus were found to be reducing boldness in this fish, while hydrilla cover on the water surface neutralised the impact of cobble substratum. Repeated exposure and resultant familiarity with the arena increased boldness of climbing perch but the pattern of modification of this behavioural trait exhibited during the course of experiment was divergent across the instruments. These results point towards the need for critically analyzing the influence of instruments used for measuring various behavioural traits and considering biological needs of the subject species while designing the apparatus.

animal behavior and cognition↗
bioRxiv2020

Social decision making is influenced by size of shoal but not personality or familiarity in Deccan Mahseer (Tor khudree)

Shoals formed by many piscine species are fission-fusion societies where decisions to leave or join a group can have consequences on the fitness of individuals. Some important factors that determine shoal choice are shoal size, familiarity and species composition. However, individuals and species often exhibit distinct shoaling preferences. Individual differences in shoaling preferences may also be related to personality traits such as boldness and sociability. In this study, we examined the link between shoaling decisions and personality traits in a hatchery reared population of an endangered megafish, the Deccan Mahseer (Tor khudree). We found that this fish exhibits a distinct preference for larger shoals at ratios of 1:2 or greater. However, they did not prefer to associate with an isolated familiar individual over unfamiliar ones or with a member of their own species over an invasive species. Moreover, shoaling preferences in individuals did not correlate with their boldness or sociability. These results suggest that hatchery reared mahseers which are reintroduced into natural habitats may shoal with invasive species, negatively affecting their viability. Modifying social behaviour of mahseers by amending rearing practices may be a useful strategy to improve outcomes of restocking interventions.

animal behavior and cognition↗
bioRxiv2019

Can Living with an Alien Invasive Fish, Tilapia, Influence the Shoaling Decision-Making and Exploratory Behaviour of an Air-Breathing Freshwater Fish, the Climbing Perch?

The biodiversity of freshwater aquatic ecosystems is threatened by invasive alien species across the world. We studied the impact of the presence of an invasive piscine species, the tilapia Oreochromis mossambicus and acquisition of familiarity with it on the social decision-making and exploratory behaviour of a native, air-breathing, freshwater fish, the climbing perch Anabas testudineus. Our results reveal that the climbing perch did not show any significant preference or aversion to any of the stimulus shoals when unfamiliar monospecific shoals of tilapia, mixed-species shoals of tilapia and climbing perch that were divergent in the composition, or groups comprising only tilapia familiar to the subject fish for a duration of 30, 60, 90 or 120 days, were presented in opposition to a shoal with an equal number of unfamiliar conspecific individuals. No preference for isolated familiar individual tilapia was also observed against its unfamiliar counterpart or a conspecific individual. It is also noteworthy that the propensity of subject climbing perch to initiate exploration of a novel area (a measure of boldness) or exploratory activity and its sociability remained unchanged under different social conditions, including presence of unfamiliar conspecific, familiar conspecific, unfamiliar heterospecific or familiar heterospecific individuals. These results are discussed in the light of ever-increasing levels of invasion by alien fish species and the struggle for survival that currently confront native piscine species in most tropical freshwater ecosystems globally.

animal behavior and cognition↗
bioRxiv2019

\"The Bold are the Sociable\": Personality, sociability and lateralized utilization of brain hemisphere in the juveniles of a megafish Deccan Mahseer (Tor khudree)

The present study explored relationships between personality traits; boldness, activity and sociability, and lateralized utilization of brain hemispheres in the hatchery reared juveniles of Deccan Mahseer (Tor khudree), a game fish inhabiting the rivers of central and southern India. Our results revealed a significant positive correlation between boldness and activity in this species when tested in isolation. However, boldness was positively correlated with the time spent near the individual conspecific but not with the individual alien invasive heterospecific tilapia (Oreochromis mossambicus). Although juvenile Deccan mahseer exhibited significant variation in the preference towards conspecific over heterospecific, no divergence in the utilization of right or left eye was seen while observing these individuals suggesting the lack of lateralized utilization of the brain hemispheres. Furthermore, laterality in visual preference failed to show any significant correlation with any of the personality traits tested in this species. Results are discussed in the light of the existing literature on the impact of life in homogenous hatchery conditions on the behaviour, personality traits and cognitive abilities of fishes.\n\nSignificance statementThe present study is one of the first that focuses on personality and lateralization in Deccan Mahseers, an endangered freshwater megafish. We report a positive linkage between boldness and sociability but do not find any correlation of personality with lateralized utilization of brain hemispheres in diverse social contexts. These findings have implications in the conservation and cultivation of this ecologically, culturally and economically important indigenous fish.

animal behavior and cognition↗