Guwahati City’s Mascot is under Treat
Gangetic dolphins are one of the most intelligent animal as per recorded in the ministry of environment, forest and climatic change. As recorded Brahmaputra river system holds the 635 dolphins. The record was taken in the year 2012. Protecting river dolphin is one of the major projects undertaken by Wildlife Institution of India(WII). Today we can say present population rates differs to 100- 150 river dolphins.
When talked to Abdul Wakid project scientist of WII, he said, “It’s a special recovery project undertaken as the species is an endangered species. This initiative was taken under Clean Ganga Initiative”.
We as a general people should know that there are two types of dolphins one which is marine and the other is river. There are 40 different species of dolphins in the world, 4 different species are recorded as river dolphins which are found in Indus, Ganges & Amazon. One such species of river dolphin is said to be extinct which was found in Yangtez river of China.
Founder member of Aranayak wildlife NGO Udayan Barthakur said, “Doctor Abdul has been involved in the extensive campaign at both national and international level to save the species from the possible impact on the Ganges dolphins of Brahmaputra River. All together we have 100 staffs in this regard.”
People also feel bones of dolphins are lucky for better catching of local fish, crabs. So they catch dolphins for such activities. Aranayak NGO is trying to aware people living near the shores about the mammal. Dolphins are found basically in whirlpool zones formed in rivers. Hence, they are keeping proper contacts with people living near the shores and managing people to protect River dolphins.
When asked to Abdul about the discussions on protecting river dolphins, he said, “we had major discussions on protection of river dolphins and altogether 34 organisations took part in the project discussions held on 2nd December, 2016. We came to know maximum people from nearby belt region have somehow occupied and killed these mammals for its fats, specifically applied for people who have arthritis or body ache, secondly, fish nets have also made their life miserable because they get caught in those nets.”
When asked to J.Purkayastha from Help Earth Association about the distribution, he said, “Dolphin loves to play under water and they are very friendly, so we see them near the shores, they keeps on jumping around. We found death rate of river dolphins has given a rise. In Guwahati, we can find river dolphins in Sector 1, Pandu port, Sariaghat, Kukumora, Dibru-Saikhowa.”
“We came up with the Concept City’s Animal, with an intention to generate mass awareness and highlight conservation concern associated with these animals and urban biodiversity of Guwahati as a whole. For City’s Animal we have taken up 3 candidate animals with highest conservation concern namely Black softshell turtle, Greater adjutant stork and River Dolphin where with 24,000 votes river dolphin has been selected as India first city animal.” He concluded.
