Concern over killing of 2 dolphins in Indus River

LAHORE

World Wide Fund for Nature-Pakistan (WWF-Pakistan) has shown serious concern over the killing of at least two Indus River dolphins near Ghazi Ghat Bridge in Dera Ghazi Khan and has asked the authorities to take punitive action against the perpetrators.

It has also called for enhanced coordination among the relevant government departments and other stakeholders.

According to WWF-Pakistan experts, the dolphin mortality may have been caused by the mammals becoming entangled in fishing nets at the site of the incident at least 10 days ago. The organisation was informed about the incident from the local community and has investigated the issue.

In order to obtain evidence of the dolphins' mortality, WWF-Pakistan and Punjab Wildlife Department team surveyed an area of around four kilometres upstream of Ghazi Ghat along the Indus River.

The team recovered bones and partially decomposed bodies of two dolphins, which confirmed the mortality. It was estimated that this incident probably had taken place more than 10 days ago.

The Indus river dolphin (Platanista gangetica minor) is an endangered species and receives global importance due to its conservation status. It is one of the only four freshwater dolphin species in the world and greater efforts are required to safeguard its future. It is currently facing multiple threats which include unsustainable fishing and entanglement incidents, canal stranding and release of untreated industrial effluents to the river among others.

WWF-Pakistan; therefore, recommends several priority recommendations to enhance Indus dolphin conservation in Punjab.

They demanded enhanced surveillance of canals upon closure to monitor any stranded dolphins in coordination with the Irrigation Department, monitoring entrapment of dolphins in disconnected water pools in low water/dry season, increased vigilance by the Fisheries Department over the use of illegal nets, which can cause entanglement and consequent drowning in dolphins and conducting awareness sessions to promote the use of legal nets, capacity building sessions for fisher communities on the safe release of dolphins and turtles upon net entanglement and designation of a high density river section as a protected area for the dolphin with intensive monitoring, similar to the Indus Dolphin Game Reserve in Sindh.