Journal of Biology and Nature

Bundh breeding is an indigenous method in which Indian major carps are induced to spawn in embanked, rain-fed impoundments that simulate the monsoon flood conditions of their riverine spawning grounds. Between the 1960s and the 1980s it became the dominant source of carp seed in India, before hormone-based hatchery production displaced it almost completely. Recent concern about inbreeding, inadvertent hybridisation and declining seed quality in hatchery stocks has renewed interest in bundhs as a supposedly natural route to superior seed and as a possible supply for reservoir stocking. This review critically evaluates the scientific basis for that expectation. Literature published between January 1957 and July 2026 was identified through international scholarly indexes, regional and institutional sources, and backward citation searching, and was appraised for design, measurement validity and relevance. The evidence was organised around five themes: bundh typology and operation, environmental cues for spawning, empirical comparisons of seed quality, genetic consequences of communal spawning, and the use of bundh-derived seed in reservoir fisheries enhancement. The synthesis shows that the engineering and hydrological principles of bundh breeding are well described, but that the environmental triggers of spawning remain unresolved and are often confounded by partial hormonal priming of broodfish. Direct comparisons between bundh-bred and hatchery-bred seed are few, confined to early developmental stages and statistically weak, so claims of superior quality are not yet supported by robust evidence. Mass spawning of many broodfish could, in principle, raise the effective number of breeders, although evidence from other species shows that communal spawning often produces highly skewed parental contributions, and multispecies spawning creates a risk of hybridisation. For reservoirs, the evidence indicates that fingerling size, stocking density and hydrology influence outcomes more strongly than seed origin, while climatic variability threatens monsoon-dependent spawning. Bundh breeding is best regarded as a low-cost, context-dependent seed production system whose genetic advantages are plausible but unverified. Controlled, genetically informed comparisons and field trials of stocked cohorts are required before it can be promoted as a quality-assurance strategy.