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A campaign to conserve dolphin

By Our Staff Correspondent

DEHRA DUN, FEB. 22. The World Wide Fund for Nature-India (WWF) will soon launch a nationwide campaign to conserve the highly endangered Ganges river dolphin (Platanista gangetica).

The campaign will be kicked off with a motorboat rally from Brijghat in Ghaziabad to Narora in Bulandshahr district of western Uttar Pradesh next month as this stretch is an excellent dolphin habitat and needs aggressive conservation measures, Sandeep Behera, coordinator of Wetlands and Fresh Water Programme of the WWF said today.

The two-day boat rally will include NGOs, sadhus, school children and local officials and aim at generating awareness about the importance of dolphins in keeping the nature's chain intact. Once found in thousands in the Ganges, the Brahmaputra and their tributaries the number of Ganges dolphin has reduced to a mere 1800-2000 now. The decline is attributed to various factors including construction of dams and barrages, domestic and industrial pollution and intensive fishing over the past few decades.

WWF studies over the past seven years reveal that the 165 kilometres stretch of the Ganges from Bijnore to Narora is an ideal habitat for the dolphins and some of the most vulnerable and rare animals including freshwater turtles, crocodiles, otters and over a hundred species of resident and migratory birds.

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