Environment ministry says no to dolphin parks

[Abhishek Jamalabad]

A dolphin kiss or their playful nature in man-made water holes would remain elusive for the Indian audience.

The environment ministry rejected the plan to develop dolphinariums in different locations in India, including Delhi's neighbourhood of Noida, Kochi in Kerala and Mumbai.

Dolphinarium is an artificial, commercial facility where the aquatic animals are kept in captivity and displayed for amusement of audience at a high price by taking away their right to live in their natural habitat. India's only brush with dolphinarium was in 1990s with a park in Chennai, which closed soon after the death of all captive mammals.

Places such as United States and Dubai have big dolphin parks and are branded as an effort to create awareness about recluse creature. But, Brazil, United Kingdom and Chile have banned dolphins in captivity.

"We will not allow dolphinariums," environment and forest minister Jayanthi Natarajan told Hindustan Times.

The ministry would soon come out with a ban on dolphin parks, some of which were proposed in collaboration with foreign players. The reason is that the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, 1960, and the Wildlife Protection Act prohibits display of animals and birds for amusement, a reason for them vanishing from circuses in India.

Source article: http://www.hindustantimes.com/India-news/NewDelhi/Fearing-cruelty-environment-ministry-says-no-to-dolphin-parks/Article1-1056519.aspx

[Sabyasachi Patra]

Dolphins are highly intelligent creatures and placing them in captivity is really hard on them. We don't have the right to subjugate them and displace them from their natural habitat.

These hedonistic activities that force the display of these animals as well as make their dance to our tunes should be abolished from everywhere.

Ric O' Barry who started this by being a dolphin trainer and is now an activist trying to save the dolphins has describes an incident where one of his dolphins just decided to take its life. He says that the dolphins are highly situationally aware creatures. They are stressed by all the sounds and the captivity. Dolphins need to breathe like us, so they have to come above water to breathe. One of his dolphins came up to him and while he was holding the dolphin it just stopped breathing and dropped down the water. It just committed "suicide" in our terms, as the dolphin could not handle the stress anymore. That changed Ric and he is a tireless activist ever since. Unfortunately, the Japanese Govt. doesn't care and continues capturing and killing the dolphins. In the IndiaWilds Newsletter Vol. 5 Issue III, you can see the embedded film.

Banning of dolphinariums is a welcome move.