- Title: Pakistan wildlife staff race against time to save blind Indus dolphin
- Date: 7th November 2021
- Summary: KARACHI, PAKISTAN (RECENT - NOVEMBER 1, 2021) (REUTERS) SINDH WILDLIFE DEPARTMENT CONSERVATOR, JAVED MAHAR, WALKING ALONG THE BEACH (SOUNDBITE) (English) CONSERVATOR, WILDLIFE DEPARTMENT, SINDH PROVINCE, JAVED MAHAR, SAYING: "It (a dolphin) requires to come out of the water between 80 to 120 seconds. So if it is entangled in the net which is fixed for fishing in that part
- Embargoed: 21st November 2021 06:20
- Keywords: Indus Pakistan blind dolphin rescue wildlife
- Location: LARKANA, SUKKUR, KARACHI, PAKISTAN
- City: LARKANA, SUKKUR, KARACHI, PAKISTAN
- Country: Pakistan
- Topics: Asia / Pacific,Environment,Nature/Wildlife,Editors' Choice
- Reuters ID: LVA003F2QKRWN
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: Rescue staff with Pakistan's Sindh Wildlife are racing against time, literally, to save an Indus river dolphin that has strayed into a waterway where it doesn't belong.
Using nets, they trap the freshwater dolphin and transport it by road to a sanctuary 82 km (51 miles) away.
Sindh Wildlife has conducted some 200 dolphin rescues since 1992, out of which around 30 dolphins died. But since 2019, all 27 rescue missions have been successful, with no deaths. This year, officials rescued 10 dolphins, eight of them in the last month.
"When we are taking a rescued dolphin to the river, we have to be very careful about a few things - first that its skin should not dry up and it should be under the impression that it is still underwater. That is why we have to keep splashing water over it. However, we have to ensure that water does not get into its blower because it breathes through the blower. We have to try and get it to the river as soon as possible," says Sindh Wildlife field officer, Mir Akhtar Hussain Talpur.
Having lived in the turbid waters of the Indus river for millions of years, the mammal has become blind. But it has learnt to live with that and moves through the waters with the help of a sonar system or echolocation system. It is one of only four freshwater dolphin species left on Earth today.
The dolphin, which once swam freely in the Indus river system of Pakistan, is slowly being squeezed out of its natural habitat by human activities. Dams have sectioned off parts of the river for irrigation and other purposes and the water has become increasingly polluted. The dolphin which can reach a size of more than two metres and weigh more than 100 kg is now only found in around a 1,207 km stretch of the river, less than half of its original range.
They feed mainly on catfish, carp and prawns and need at least a metre of water to live. Some of the smaller ones find their way into shallower irrigation canals, ponds and even fields, where they cannot survive. Hunting the blind dolphin is banned and aggressive legal action is being taken against offenders but Sindh Wildlife officials say fishermen's nets still pose a great threat as some become entangled in them and drown.
In 1972, after the Indus dolphin was declared an endangered species by the World Wildlife Fund's (WWF) River Dolphins Initiative and the government of Sindh province created a reserve where stray dolphins can be relocated.
The effort to protect the dolphins has had an impact. The population had dwindled to 132 in 1972 but the WWF's latest survey in 2019 found 1,816 of them, a 50 per cent increase from a previous census in 2001.
(Production: Waseem Sattar, Sheree Sardar, Masako Iijima) - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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