[animalnepal] NP - Save the (gangetic) dolphin!

[Guest guest]

As someone who has seen one of these creatures, having just moved to Nepal

back in 2001 or so, I was in awe...a dolphin in the river! I thought I was

hallucinating. Considering they get hacked up for curry, it seems there is

little hope for these little intelligent guys, considering the state of the

state of Nepal. But it would be nice to at least try to save the few that

are left...but how?

Jigs

 

 

 

On 2/1/09 12:11 PM, " Lucia De Vries " <luciadevries wrote:

 

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> Save the dolphin!

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> Gaia Vince

>

> The mist merges with the murky river that slaps against the sides of our

> boat. At first, the brown hump that appears and disappears a boat's length

> ahead is not immediately identifiable. But as the mist burns off in the weak

> January sun, we witness the clear arch and leap of not one, but two, rare

> Gangetic dolphins. It's a mesmerizing sight and a privilege: There are just 28

> dolphins left in Nepal, according to a survey carried out last year, and only

> four are here in the Karnali River, a tributary of the Ganges.

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> " There used to be hundreds of them, " says Tej Kumar Shrestha, professor of

> zoology at Tribhuvan University in Kathmandu, who led the survey and has

> studied the dolphin extensively over the past 15 years. " Every time I carry

> out the river survey, I find there are fewer and fewer. In five years' time, I

> expect the dolphin will be extinct in Nepal. "

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> The Gangetic dolphin (Platanista gangetica) is predominantly found in India

> and Bangladesh, where there are estimated to be around 3,000 in the Ganges and

> Brahmaputra rivers. Its numbers have crashed by 50 percent over the past

> decade, and the aquatic mammal is rated as endangered on the IUCN Red List. A

> subspecies of the dolphin, Platanista gangetica minor, is found in the Indus

> River in Pakistan, where the creature has been separated from its brethren in

> India by dams and dried-up rivers for so long -- hundreds of years -- that

> physical differences have emerged.

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> Every June, during the monsoon rains, migratory dolphins of breeding age

> (three to 25 years old) journey to the cooler, fast-flowing oxygenated waters

> of Nepal. Here they breed and hunt in the rejuvenated streams and oxbow lakes

> before returning south in September. " If they can't migrate over, they can't

> breed -- it's as simple as that, " Shrestha says.

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> Climate change is making the problem worse. The monsoon has been arriving as

> much as weeks later in recent years, and in more concentrated bursts. The

> floods are higher -- in 2007 as many as 45 dolphins migrated across after the

> waters completely washed away one major barrage. But the rains are also

> briefer, draining the streams and pools too soon for the dolphins to return,

> Shrestha says.

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> As with other endangered animals, it is illegal to kill a dolphin -- the

> penalty is 70,000 rupees ($900) or 10 years' imprisonment, but it has never

> been enacted. Shrestha says the police are bribed. " And anyway, there's no

> room in the prisons, " he laughs, pointing to the overflow of political

> prisoners.

>

> Those living near Bardia National Park are hoping that the new peace, brought

> by last year's election of a Maoist government, will allow the country and its

> animals to recover. As my boat pulls in to the jetty, I realise that the susus

> I was lucky enough to see may turn out to be the last of Nepal's resident

> dolphins.

>

> (Seed Magazine)

>

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> Posted on: 2009-01-31 20:03:02 (Server Time)

> http://ekantipur.com/kolnews.php? & nid=178159

> Lucia de Vries

> Freelance Journalist

> Bagdol, Patan, Nepal

> Wijk 4-47, 8321 GE Urk, Holland

>

>

 

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