“…The Western Ghats of India is well known for its exclusive biodiversity and also classified as a freshwater eco-region with more than 300 species of the freshwater fishes (Abell et al, 2008;Molur, Smith, Daniel, & Darwall, 2011;Myers, Mittermeier, Mittermeier, Da Fonseca, & Kent, 2000). Nearly 30% of the species inhabiting the Western Ghats have been categorized as threatened in the IUCN Red list (Dahanukar, 2011;Dahanukar, Raghavan, Ali, Abraham, & Shaji, 2011;, Ramprasanth, Ali, & Dahanukar, 2018a). However, several endemic and threatened species continue to be harvested at unsustainable levels through artisanal and open-access fisheries throughout the Western Ghats (Das et al, 2017;Keskar, Raghavan, Kumkar, Padhye, & Dahanukar, 2017;Kharat & Dahanukar, 2013;Prasad, Ali, Harikrishnan, & Raghavan, 2012;Raghavan, Ali, Dahanukar, & Rosser, 2011;Raghavan et al, 2018a).…”