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Neha Saini
Tribune News Service
Amritsar, February 2
The declaration of the Indus river dolphin as the state aquatic animal by Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh has been hailed by environment and wildlife activisits in the region. The Indus river dolphins are considered one of the rarest aquatic mammals found only in India and Pakistan. These have made Beas river their home in Punjab.
Activists term it as a step towards ensuring preservation of the unique ecosystem of Beas. “We at the WWF are delighted with the declaration of the blind Indus river dolphin, discovered in 2007 in collaboration with our teams, as Punjab state aquatic animal. The species, Platanista Gangetic Minor, was duly designated as an internationally recognised subspecies a few years ago. Its present habitat is primarily Beas river along the Karmowal Harike axis. Continued habitat protection and monitoring has ensured the survival of this species. We indeed laud the declaration that constitutes attention to ecology of the state,” said Gunbir Singh, chairman, WWF Punjab.
WWF teams have been carrying out documentation of the species since last year and engaged experts in ensuring their survival at Harike wetlands.
The dolphin has been mentioned on the endangered list under the India’s Wildlife Protection Act and its another subspecies Gangetic dolphin is the national aquatic animal of India. According to experts, the species got fragmented in early 1960s as the barrages and construction of dams on Beas and Indus rivers forced the species to migrate. “The Indus river dolphin, also known as blind Indus river dolphin, is found only in India and Pakistan. Back in 2007, when a team of WWF experts spotted it at Harike, there were six adults. Now, the number is somewhere around 12. It is called ‘sush’ (a Punjabi word for dolphin) by local fishermen and is highly sensitive to its ecology. A slight threat in its natural habitat makes it migrate to safer locations, which is the reason river pollution and other ecological changes might severely harm the growth of the species,” said Dr Chander Prakash, assistant professor, IK Gujral Punjab Technical University, who has done research on the ecology of Harike Wetland.
A special status for the endangered species has given hopes for more steps to ensure that the Harike Wetlands, considered a thriving ecosystem with many unique species of aquatic animals and birds, gets more attention from the state government machinery.
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