GANGES RIVER DOLPHINS POACHED IN BIHAR

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Ganges river dolphins at risk from poaching, pollution

 

By Imran Khan, Indo-Asian News Service

 

Bhagalpur (Bihar), April 23 (IANS) Alarmed at the death of about six

endangered Ganges river dolphins in Bihar, wildlife activists have called

for urgent action to check their poaching and pollution of the river.

 

Around half a dozen dolphins have been killed by poachers and fishermen in

the last one month in the Vikramshila Gangetic Dolphin Sanctuary in this

south east Bihar district, one of the four freshwater dolphin sanctuaries in

the world.

 

R.K. Sinha, head of zoology department at Patna University, warned that the

mammals would disappear unless urgent steps were taken to clean up the

Ganges.

 

A rapidly shrinking Ganges and the river's changing course were also

threatening the dolphins, said Sinha, who heads the central government's

dolphin conservation project.

 

Untreated sewage, rotting carcasses and industrial effluents that found

their way into the Ganges during its 2,500-km journey across several states

from the Himalayas to the Bay of Bengal had also affected the dolphins, he

said.

 

In the latest instance, a team of research scholars from Vikramshila

Biodiversity Research and Education Centre here found a dead dolphin

Thursday in the sanctuary.

 

Last week, another dolphin was found dead at Hanuman Ghat within the

sanctuary that is spread over a 50 km-area and was set up nearly a decade

ago on the Ganga river at Kahalgaon near here.

 

Earlier this month, a pregnant female dolphin was found dead near Kuppa Ghat

while one dolphin was found dead in the last week of March and two were

found dead in February.

 

'All these dolphins were killed either accidentally or deliberately by

fishermen and poachers,' said Sunil Choudhary, a wildlife expert. 'It is an

alarming development that shows dolphins were targeted in the sanctuary

itself.'

 

According to researchers, in the 1980s, the Gangetic delta zone had around

3,500 dolphins but their population is now estimated to be about 1,500.

 

According to locals, the number of dolphins killed was more than double the

official figure.

 

'Most of the dolphins killed by poachers or killed in accidents were not

found by officials because they were dumped elsewhere,' a local resident

said.

 

Wildlife experts said most dolphins die after getting entangled in fishing

nets. The mammals are also killed for their meat, skin and oil.

 

Activists blamed the state government's apathy for the threat faced by the

mammals.

 

'On paper conservation work is going on but in reality the sanctuary has no

formal conservation plan. Unless local people are involved in conservation

and awareness created, dolphins will continue to be targeted,' Choudhary

said.

 

In 1996, freshwater dolphins - locally known as 'sons of the river' - were

listed as an endangered species by the World Conservation Union (IUCN).

 

The Ganges River Dolphins are among the four freshwater Dolphins found in

the world - the other three are the Baiji found in the Yangtze river in

China, the Bhulan of the Indus in Pakistan and the Buto of the Amazon river

in Latin America.

 

Copyright Indo-Asian News Service