The standing committee of the National Board for wildlife(NBWL) has made a decision to designate October 5 as ‘National Dolphin Day’. The committee passed the statement to the union environment ministry on Friday.
About 1272 dolphins were recorded in Ganga, Yamuna, Chambal, Ken, Betwa, Son, Sharda, Geruwa, Ghagra, Gandak and Rapti rivers according to the assessment of WWF-India and forest department of Uttar Pradesh in the year 2012, and 2015.
However, these are facing multiple threats such as pollution, water diversion, habitat fragmentation, and bycatch, the Ganges river dolphin is seriously threatened. The US-based National Marine Mammal Foundation also cited that ‘several major infrastructure projects within its region will impose a real risk for catastrophic population decline in the future’.
On Friday, the environment minister Bhupender Yadav said “Creating awareness and improving the primary participation of the community in the conservation of the dolphins are the major factors which forced the designation of a ‘national dolphin day’. However, improving the flow and water quality in Ganga and its tributaries to the survival of the Gangetic dolphin is very important and the ministry should focus on it’ feels the experts.
It is a point of curiosity what will be the impact on the dolphins by the programme of interlink rivers which started the government of India through the National Water Development Agency (NWDA) and Jal Shakti ministry. NWDA has identified 30 such linking projects. The government has prepared detailed project reports for the Ken-Betwa link, the Daman Ganga-Pinjal link, and the Par-Tapi-Narmada link.
