It was not known to me but half of India's dolphins are found in the water of Ganges (Ganga) river in Bihar. However, this population of dolphins will start facing extinction if their killing is not stopped immediately.

There are two reasons for extinction.
1. Contaminated wastes released by industries into Ganga
2. Fishermen killing the dolphin's to use their oil for making fishing bates.

Dolphin's have been declared national indian aquatic animal recently. But even besides that it would be lovely to have dolphins around and can become a source of dolphin tourism in Bihar.

Alternatives have to be found for the fishermen folk so that they can switch over to other materials for fishing bates. Secondly, the pollution control mechanism has to kick in to quickly stop industries from releasing contaminated wastes into Ganga across the various states Ganga flows in. While efforts have been going on, on this front from quite sometime, the efforts have to be increased and the industrialists have to realize that it is important to save the Ganga from any further contamination. They might incurr a small cost to find out alternate ways of waste disposal but the benefit of this act on humanity will be tremendous.

Since a lot of rivers feed into Ganga, dolphin's are found in other rivers , like Gandak , etc too. Hence it is equally important to protect the dolphin population there.

I appreciate PU zoology department Professor R K Sinha, who has single-handedly led a struggle to save the Ganga dolphins. Let us support him and his efforts in anyway possible which includes even just spreading the words on saving the dolphin population.

Tourism: Dolphin keep changing habitats with the changing seasons and right now good numbers are found in the Ganga in Patna and Vikramshila Gangetic Dolphin Sanctuary in Bhagalpur. Last month, Prof. Sinha sailed 200 kms in the Gandak in a boat and spotted a dolphin every km. So the tourism enthusiats planning on a holiday might consider going on a dolphin tourism in Bihar.

An interesting article to save the dolphin's can be found here "Enforce ban on killing of dolphins, DMs told". More details on Prof. Sinha can be found at http://dolphinsinha.com

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Posted By Prashant to Bihar - Change in Destiny and Progress at 10/30/2009 11:01:00 PM