sanctuary: endangered speciesSection 2i.witness

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After tigers, its the turn of river dolphins to become endangered. The plummeting numbers have been blamed on poaching, pollution and

the fishing nets in which they get entangled, says Siba Mohanty

whos killing our dolphins?gangasmount

Who are they?Dolphins are marine mammals that are closely

related to whales and porpoises. There arealmost forty species, varying in size from 1.2metres and 40 kg up to 9.5 m and 10 tonnes.

They evolved about 10 million years ago. Theyare considered to be amongst the most intelli-gent of animals, and their friendly appearance

and playful attitude have made them popular inhuman culture. The name dolphin derives from

the ancient Greek word delphis, related todelphys, meaning womb. So the name can be

interpreted as a fish with a womb.

Mating: Happens belly to belly andthough many species engage in lengthy fore-

play, the actual act is usually only brief, but maybe repeated several times within a short times-

pan. Dolphins are known to have sex for reasonsother than reproduction, sometimes also engag-ing in acts of a homosexual nature. Occasionally,

they will also show sexual behaviour towardsother animals, including humans.

Myth: Common in Greek mythology. A shipspotting dolphins riding in their wake

considered them a good omen for a smoothvoyage. In Hindu mythology, the Ganges riverdolphin is associated with Ganga, the deity of

the river.

Books: Dolphins are also common in con-temporary literature, especially science-fiction

novels: Johnny Mnemonic by William Gibson;The Dragonriders of Pern series of Anne

McCaffrey; In the Known Space Universe by LarryNiven; The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy;

David Brin's Uplift series; Robert Anton WilsonsIlluminatus Triology; The Music of Dolphins byKaren Hesse; Into the Deep by Ken Grimwood

sevenfactsDolphins can swim and sleep atthe same time; the brain isawake for eight hours. The leftside then sleeps for eighthours. When it wakes up, theright side sleeps for eighthours.

Dolphins are capable ofimitation and memorisation.

The common dolphin averages2.5 m in length and 74 kg inweight.

A dolphin can detectunderwater sounds from 15miles away.

Dolphins jump out of the waterto conserve energy.

Dolphins have belly buttons

Dolphins are bald their skincontains no hair follicles,sebaceous or sweat glands

When the last tiger count showed therewas a drastic fall in the number ofthe big cats, it sparked fears of theanimal being wiped out from its habi-

tats. Now, the same fears are being raised aboutthe Ganges river dolphins as, according to a re-cent survey, their number has come down dras-tically over the last couple of years.

Considered one of the most intelligent crea-tures and top predators of the riverine eco-sys-tems, the Ganges river dolphins are the onlyfreshwater species available in India other thanthe facultative Irrawady ones. Once found inabundance along the Ganges-Brahmaputra belt,these creatures are now in danger of becomingextinct with poaching, pollution, dams, miningand deforestation.

Ironically, the Ganges river dolphins (Pla-tanista Gangetica) enjoy high levels of protec-tion, both in India and abroad. The Internation-al Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) hasplaced it on its Red List under the endangeredcategory, while it is a Schedule-I animal underthe Wildlife Protection Act, 1972.

However, the first-ever survey of the river dol-phins in India, which covered 5,244 km of theGanges and the Brahmaputra across Assam, Bi-har, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand,Rajasthan and West Bengal, found less than 1,800of these mammals in the entire belt. The survey,conducted by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) dur-ing 2001-05, also found them confined to 34 stretch-es of the two rivers and their 16 tributaries.

While some of habitats of the dolphins offerhope, others give cause for concern. Along thestretch of the Ganges between Allahabad andBallia/Chapra (in Bihar), about 300 of these Susus(as they are popularly known because of the pe-culiar noise they make) were sighted. BetweenPatna and Farakka, their population was esti-

mated at 224, while in Ghagra river betweenthe Kailashpuri barrage and Deurighat in UttarPradesh their numbers stood at 295. The Ya-muna also showed a decent population of 104 inthe stretch between Chambal region and Alla-habad. The Chambal river in Madhya Pradeshhas about 90 dolphins.

Sandeep K Behera, coordinator (freshwaterspecies), WWF-India, who is also known as theDolphin Man, warns that river dolphins are fastdepleting in Assam, mainly in the Brahmaputraand Kulsi, while there is a similar trend in theSon, Kosi and Ganges rivers in Bihar.

There are only 190 dolphins in six stretchesof the Brahmaputra in Assam and these face thethreat of poaching. The survey team also couldnot find even one dolphin between the MadhyaGanga barrage at Bijnour and the Bimgoda bar-rage near Haridwar. This is a 100-km loss in themammals distribution range. The situation inthe Yamuna, above the confluence of the Cham-bal river where dolphins were historicallysighted around the year is similar.

Binn, a migrant fishing community of Bihar,is also responsible for the large-scale hunting ofdolphins, whose oil is used as bait for catchingfish and to cure rheumatism, burns and asthma.

The decline in dolphin populations is also at-tributed to pollution, particularly in the Ganges,because of short-sighted and non-relenting de-velopment policies. The basin of this river ishome to about 450 million people at an averageof 550 persons per sq km. In the deltaic zone, thenumber virtually doubles to 900 per sq km. Justimagine the kind of pressure this puts on theriver, says Behera.

There are about 30 cities, 70 towns and sever-al thousand villages along the banks of theGanges. Over 1.3 billion litres of sewage gener-ated by these human habitations goes into the

river, along with thousands of animal carcass-es. Add another 260 million litres of industrialwastewater and 9,000 tonnes of pesticides everyyear. Six million tonnes of chemical fertilisersare also released into the river, says Behera.

As if the population load were not bad enough,the fragmentation of dolphin habitats has addedto the threat. The Ganges river system is inter-rupted in many places by numerous water de-velopment projects. This not only restricts dol-phins' mobility but also fragments their habitatsand thus, results in their population getting ge-netically isolated, adds Behera.

The IUCN has cautioned that if the ambitiousGanga-Brahmaputra interlinking canal and thesubsequent dam projects are complete by 2016,the impact would be disastrous. In that case,the population of river dolphins may reduce by50 per cent, says an IUCN official.

The high rate of siltation, low flow of waterand effluent discharge have only worsened thequality of habitats. The Chambal river in Mad-hya Pradesh and Rajasthan faces the brunt ofexcessive sand excavation and stone and limequarrying, leading to heavy siltation.

The Irrawaddy dolphins (Orcaella bervi-rostris), which are a little smaller than the Gangesriver ones, are also facing such a situation. Theyhave a bulging forehead and a shorter beak andare found only in South and South-East Asiancountries. In India, they are found only in Oris-sas Chilika lagoon, which boasts of the worlds

single largest population, estimated at about 135.These dolphins can live in estuarine, marine andfreshwater conditions.

The Chilika Development Authority will car-ry out a genetic study on these endangered mam-mals. While these dolphins face a serious threatfrom growing eco-tourism in the brackish waterlagoon, they have a friend in the local fishermen.They are attracted by noise that the fishermencreate to attract them near their boats as the dol-phins attract fish. However, the increasing useof mechanised boats, gillnets and traps are killingthem. In five years, about 45 of them have beenfound dead, prompting CDA to adopt a DolphinProtocol in Chilika.

sibamohanty@gmail.com

River dolphins are fast depleting inAssam, mainly in theBrahmaputra and Kulsi

The New Sunday Express I April 13, 2008