First dolphin community reserve to come up in Bengal

[Mrudul Godbole]

First dolphin community reserve to come up in Bengal
Kolkata, 9 Oct 2015

The State Wildlife Board has decided to have the country's first community reserve for the Dolphins to protect the endangered Gangetic river dolphins.

The number of dolphin is estimated to be less than 2,000 in the country.

State Chief Wildlife Warden Azam Zaidi told "A committee is being formed to examine in what way the community reserve would be set up in the Hooghly river between Malda and Sundarbans. We'll take all stakeholders together in this initiative. It is expected that it would be ready within a year's time.

The stretch of the river is not within a forest or a sanctuary so it is very important to involve all stakeholders for protecting dolphins. We want to spread awareness, control noise pollution and have cleaner water for conserving dolphins,".

The stretch of Hooghly in West Bengal, is roughly 500 km long and it passes through Kolkata before merging with the Bay of Bengal in the Sundarbans.

A census would also be conducted to estimate the population of dolphins by the Forest Department.

This is a positive step towards conservation of this National aquatic animal of India.

[Roopak Gangadharan]

Great to know this. Anything which we can do to protect and conserve our marine, freshwater and other aquatic habitats is great. these habitats are perhaps the most neglected and also the most abused by anthropogenic activities.
TFS
Roopak

[Sabyasachi Patra]

Yesterday I was having a lunch in a public place and it was disconcerting to make yourself heard above the din. I can imagine how terrible it is to be a dolphin as the constant humming of motor boats in the water, pumpsets and other anthropophony keeps on increasing with each passing day. The dolphins use ecolocation ie sounds to navigate. So it is like we humans trying to find our path when bright light is constantly flashed on our eyes on a dark night.

[Abhishek Jamalabad]

This is a great move. Hope it sees success and is followed by more conservation measures. Agree with Sabyasachi about the noise... When one is SCUBA diving, the noise from even a single motor boat can be unbearable. For marine mammals with their sensitive hearing, it can only be much worse.