The present study was carried out on Wular lake, the largest freshwater lake of India to obtain a baseline data on the dynamics of species composition and density of cladoceran zooplankton for the period of one year from September 2010 to August 2011 at five different study sites. Investigations revealed about 23 species of Cladocera belonging to six families were reported during the entire study. Among the six families, Chydoridae was numerically dominant, being represented by nine species, followed by Daphnidae with seven species, Bosminidae, Moinidae and Sididae with two species each and Macrothricidae with only one species. Shannon index was noticed highest for site III reflecting the stable environmental conditions of this biotope.