Healthy aquatic environments contribute to the planet's overall well-being. Conservation of dolphin will thus help in ensuring the survival of species as well as humans who depend on the aquatic ecosystem for their way of life.
Dolphins are the ideal ecological markers of a healthy aquatic ecosystem. On 15 August 2020, the “Project Dolphin” was launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to include both river dolphins and marine dolphins in its conservation program. Keeping in mind the importance of dolphins, 5th October was declared as “National Dolphin Day”, a day to raise awareness for dolphin conservation.
ICAR-Central Inland Fisheries Research Institute, Barrackpore commemorated ‘National Dolphin Day’ at four different places in West Bengal namely Farakka, Nabadwip, Tribeni, and Balagarh on the bank of river Ganga under Namami Gange Program.
Dr. Basanta Kumar Das, Director of ICAR-CIFRI and Principal Investigator of the NMCG project, stressed that India's waters are home to about 30 species of marine mammals, including river dolphins. The Gangetic River dolphin (Platanista gangetica) lives only in the Ganga-Brahmaputra systems, while the Indus River dolphin (Platanista minor) is only found in the Indus system, which includes the Sutlej, Ravi, and Beas rivers.
He emphasised the Gangetic dolphin's importance as an indicator species for the Ganga ecosystem, whose vulnerability to changes in water quality and flow offers information on the general condition of the ecosystem and other species in that ecosystem.
On this occasion, more than 200 personnel including active fishers, social workers, and students residing on the banks of the river participated in the programme.
Source - ICAR
