Two stranded blind dolphins rescued

SUKKUR: Two blind Indus dolphins were rescued after being found stranded in a lake in Sukkur district.In a statement, Sindh Wildlife Department said two rare blind Indus Dolphins were rescued from a lake near Sarfo Pattan area in Sukkur and were released in the Indus River.

It said the rescuers required two days to safely rescue the stranded rare dolphins from the lake, saying one of the Dolphin was 5 feet 5 inches long, 56 kilograms of weight and 15 years old, while other was 7 feet 6 inches long and with 85 kilograms of weight and 17 years old.

In a shocking incident in Pano Akil in Sukkur, people had killed a blind dolphin viciously in August this year. In January this year, local people also found two dead dolphins in a canal in Khanpur Mahar in Ghotki district. The carcasses of the two dead mammals were recovered by local villagers from a canal, as the dolphins were stranded during the closure period of Sukkur barrage in January.

It is pertinent to mention here that the Indus River dolphin has been marked as endangered by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN). These mammals have to adapt to life in the muddy river water, and are believed since then to be functionally blind. Without eyes, the rare species rely on echolocation to communicate, navigate, and to prey, including catfish, prawns, and carp. The dolphins remain in the lower downstream reaches of the Indus River with grey-brown in colour, sometimes with a pinkish belly, and measure between 1.5 metres and 2.5 metres in length, weighing a maximum of 90 kg.