Irravady Dolphins - Sunderbans

[Mrudul Godbole]

We had great Dolphin sightings this time in Sunderbans. This was my first experience to sight and photograph Irrawaddy dolphins. First time while going to Netidhopani we sighted a group of dolphins but there were very far away and the light was very harsh. On the last day while close to Gazi Khali (Saktida please correct me if wrong, it was Gazi Khali or another place) we sighted a very big group of Irrawaddy dolphins. They kept going around our launch and we got some good opportunities to photograph them. This image was clicked during this sighting.

Canon 1D Mark IV, Canon 100-400mm L IS USM, f7.1, 1/800, ISO 400, slightly cropped for composition, hand held

Comments and critiques welcome..

[Shyamala Kumar]

Great capture.It must have been indeed difficult to to get two of them together.Nice colors.Thanks for sharing.

[Roopak Gangadharan]

Super..this must have been a very exciting moment, to see these beauties up close and in a large group.

TFS
Roopak

[Saktipada Panigrahi]

Rare sight and amazingly beautiful image. I have not yet seen so nice an image of Irrawaddy Dolphins in the rivers of the Sundarbans in any books written on this Mystic Mangrove.
It is a great day for the members of IndiaWilds Forum.
I have seen Gangetic Dolphins in Ganga since my childhood and also in the Sundarbans. Gangetic Dolphins are more playful and sometimes swim close to the launch while Irrawaddy will take a dip in the front of the launch and appear far off at the rear end.

That day we entered Pirkhali 1 and were proceeding towards Bonbibi Bharani canal, criss crossing numerous canals and creeks.....when they suddenly appeared in the Channel and within minutes went out of sight. We continued our journey but sometime later decided to take a chance, as they had entered the Channel connecting Pirkhali 1 and 2; reversed the gear abandoning our earlier plan. This is not far off from Gazi Khal, as Madam Mrudul has stated. The channel is commonly called as Sudhanyakhali Channel.
Thanks for sharing. SaktiWild

[Sabyasachi Patra]

It was a tough situation. We were anxious to capture this moment as during our last visit we hadn't seen these beautiful creatures. The group of dolphins was moving and would appear on surface in different directions and the big motor boat that we were in didn't help matters either. This was the closest we saw the dolphins. The water coming from their mouth and the spray illustrates the beauty and habit of these individuals nicely. This sighting along with other memorable sightings of water monitors swimming or high up on a tree, crocs, leopard cat as well as experiences in the previous trip etc will take us back to Sundarban again and again.

[Suraj Sreedhar]

Nice click of thes rare ones................
Tfs

[Roopak Gangadharan]

I kept coming back to this image... nature sometimes gives these priceless gifts of rare moments, it is amazing how much it means to those who love and respect it and how little to those who don't care. Even after so many years in the wilds Shakti da's and Patra sab's words show how much this moment meant to them and the joy in sharing it with others. There wud be many who might remark to the boatman "Paisa Vasool " or count the number of likes he will get on facebook.

Rgds
Roopak

[Mrudul Godbole]

Thanks all for the comments.

Roopak, thanks for your comments. I agree for me sighting Dolphins was equivalent to sighting a tiger in Sunderbans. It was an amazing feeling to see these beauties swimming around the launch. One moment we used to sight them behind the launch and in the next moment they would be sighted at the other end. I feel we were really lucky to sight and photograph them. Thanks to Saktida, without whom this would not have been possible.

[Debasis Bose]

Superb capture of a lovely moment. Indeed sighting Irrawaddy Dolphins are rare, I have been to Sunderbans twice on two night boat cruise, with no luck

[Kaustuv Chatterjee]

Beautiful...got reminded of this excellent chapter on the Yangtse river dolphins in 'Last Chance to See'...they are extinct now.

[Abhishek Jamalabad]

I somehow missed seeing this earlier. Brilliant shot Mrudul. Nicely timed. Approximately how many were there?

[Mrudul Godbole]

Thanks all for the comments.

Abhishek, we could sight atleast 5-6 groups of 2-3 dolphins. They were all around our launch :).

[Dheerendra Singh]

Rare sight.great capture.