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The spotlight is on the dolphin....

Bindu Shajan Perappadan

Experts to formulate strategy to conserve the endangered mammal

NEW DELHI: Conservationists from India and Japan have teamed up to analyse and chalk out a strategy to conserve the Ganges river dolphin, an endangered mammal.

Under this unique partnership, the World Wide Fund for Nature-India (WWF) and the University of Tokyo have come together to understand the behavioural pattern of these dolphins. The Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi, is also a part of this programme.

The Ganges river dolphins, endemic to the Ganga and the Brahmaputra, have been under severe threat due to excessive development pressure on the river and rising pollution levels.

There are only four species of dolphins in the world that inhabit rivers and lakes and, according to conservation groups, there are only around 2,000 of them in India.

Under the new initiative, the Indian-Japanese research team has over the past several months tested a new hydrophone system developed by Professor Tamaki Ura at the University of Tokyo. The device can track dolphins from up to a kilometre away without disturbing them. Computers can then take the data and reconstruct the movements of the dolphins allowing researchers to learn about their behaviour.

Each device has five sensors that can chart the dolphins by tracking their tones or clicks that the mammals emit to navigate.

Through the system, researchers hope to gain new knowledge about the endangered dolphins, including their group behaviour and their numbers. "The results from the study will broaden our knowledge base and help us focus our conservation initiatives in the Upper Ganga region and other dolphin habitats,'' says WWF-India Secretary-General and CEO Ravi Singh. After the test run, the technology with some modification will be used to understand and conserve these mammals.

"The new technology developed by the University of Tokyo is based on the specially designed underwater acoustic device called hydrophone that measures the sonar pulses as `clicks'. These passive methods can also be automated that allow day-night observation in turbid waters without causing any disturbance to the animal,'' says WWF-India Director (Fresh Water and Wetlands Programme) Parikshit Gautam.

The technology allows collection of data relating to precise underwater movements and sonar-range of dolphins even in shallow water with a 5-hydrophone system. The findings are expected to help sharpen and increase the scope of WWF-India's River Dolphin programme.

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