Endangered Species Day fell on May 19 this year. To call attention to the wildlife we’re most in danger of losing, Nature inFocus has launched a multi-part series on endangered species across India. We’ve chosen to focus on each species individually, by asking a researcher who’s been involved in the fight for their survival to write about them. These aren’t intended to be solely dire missives either – if there’s good news, or a small milestone that’s been achieved in the field, we want to highlight it. If their numbers are inching up with the help of conservationists, researchers, policy makers and nature itself, we want to celebrate this. Here is the fourth story of the series.

There are two subspecies of the South Asian River Dolphin. The South Asian River Dolphin (Platanista gangetica) has two recognised subspecies: the Indus (Platanista gangetica minor) and the Ganges River Dolphin (Platanista gangetica gangetica). In India, a small population of Indus dolphins is found in the Beas River of Punjab (within the Indus basin), whereas the Ganges subspecies, the focus of this piece, occurs across the Ganga and Brahmaputra basin rivers. 

The original range of the Ganges subspecies was far wider than it is today. It is said to have extended from the plains of the Ganga at Haridwar to the west, to the easternmost plains of the Brahmaputra river in Assam. It is very difficult to say what their numbers used to be with any precision or accuracy. As per Jones (1982), they are likely to have numbered up to 6000 historically across their range. The species range has clearly shrunk at the extremities of the range, both west and southwards. The major decline has been in the plains of far-western Uttar Pradesh, where the species is found only downstream of the Bijnor barrage today. The dolphin might also be extinct from rivers such as the Barak in Assam, where it once occurred.

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Sustained research and monitoring in places such as the Vikramshila Sanctuary tells us a lot about the species’ ecology.

No clear range-wide estimates of their population exist. There is an urgent need to work towards an India-Bangladesh range-wide population size assessment, but my personal guess is that no more than 4000 of the Gangetic subspecies exist overall across India, Nepal and Bangladesh. (The Indus subspecies mainly occurs in the main stem of the Indus in Pakistan. However, a small population of about 20-30 dolphins persists in the Beas River in India, and was detected only in 2007 for the first time by WWF-India.)

The major decline for both subspecies has occurred over the last 50 years or so. The construction of dams and barrages in the 1960s and 1970s is likely to have dealt an important blow to dolphin survival, because of corresponding declines in water levels and therefore, a decline in fisheries productivity. This likely compelled fishers closer to dolphin feeding areas, leading to increased incidences of bycatch and mortality, further aggravating threats to the dolphin population. In 1996, the IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature) reviewed the species status in a detailed manner and suspected that less than 2,000 mature individuals of the Gangetic subspecies might remain. They also noted major declines in the westward ranges of the species in India. 

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The Gangetic Dolphin became almost blind millions of years ago, due to evolutionary disuse. Photograph: Sushant Dey

Since 1996, many reports and recommendations to conserve the Gangetic Dolphin have been made. The IUCN's 1996 report declared the Ganges and Indus river dolphin subspecies as Endangered, and this prompted action from multiple organisations – in India, mainly Patna University, T.M. Bhagalpur University, WWF-India, Jiwaji University Gwalior, the Wildlife Institute of India, and Aaranyak. It is difficult to say how many of these reports, recommendations and guidelines were actually followed on the ground, and to what extent the government ensured these guidelines were implemented. One example was the declaration of the Ganges River Dolphin as India's National Aquatic Animal – praiseworthy, certainly, but whether it actually changed anything for the species is difficult to say. In all probability, it did nothing. 

There have been some important and noteworthy efforts to save the species. Aaranyak's work led to the cancellation of plans to conduct seismic surveys for oil exploration in the Brahmaputra River. WWF-Pakistan, and now WWF-India and the Turtle Survival Alliance, have done some noteworthy work on the rescue and rehabilitation of stranded river dolphins in canals (in Sindh, Pakistan, and Uttar Pradesh, India). Their work can help prepare a standard guideline for rescue, and also provide baseline data to help maintain adequate levels of water flowing in rivers to avoid dolphins getting stranded in the first place. Sustained research and monitoring in places such as the Vikramshila Sanctuary tells us a lot about the species’ ecology and its responses to multiple interacting changes in hydrology, fisheries, social conflicts etc. In West Bengal, the Forest Department’s efforts to set up a community reserve on the Hooghly river for conserving river dolphins is also noteworthy. However, things are not really looking up for the Gangetic Dolphin, and are still bleak. I would be very cautious in attributing any actual success to conservation efforts, local or national or regional, unless there is irrefutable evidence showing this. 

At present, the main source of hope is the species itself. But how much more can these river dolphins withstand? The South Asian River Dolphin is a remarkably resilient, street-smart, and adaptable cetacean species – evident from the way it has managed to survive in one of the most intensely abused river basins of the world, with multiple water demands on its its habitat all the time – mainly for irrigation, but also for industrial and urban uses. The question now is how much more we will test the ability of the species to adapt. With new massive developments on the anvil for the Ganga river basin, such as river linking and waterways, there is cause for concern. We need to see how these threats can be mitigated or avoided, given their potential impacts on riverine wildlife. How much longer can these river dolphins withstand such abstractions of water, or heavier pollution loads? These are the questions that ecologists need to ask, and that society at large needs to consciously think about, even as we make simple routine choices about our food and water.

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How much longer can these river dolpins withstand heavier pollution loads in their habitat? Photograph: Sushant Dey

We all have to be more aware about this species, its habitat, and the threats it faces. Many people know of the dolphin, but do they really? There is a wide audience, including some conservationists and ecologists, who still confuse the species with other marine, acrobatic, jumping dolphins. Believe it or not, there are ecologists who think that the species lost its eyesight because of pollution. (Actually, the river dolphin does not need eyesight in its murky habitat, and became almost blind millions of years ago, due to evolutionary disuse. But it is not blind at all if one considers how it 'sees' with its amazing echolocation apparatus.) 

We need to change the way we look at rivers in our country. Look at how society engages with our freshwater ecosystems. How many people want to see tigers, and how few a dolphin or a gharial! Rivers are seldom thought of as ecosystems, but rather, they’re viewed as water-carriers, or conduits, or “water bodies”. Our conservation engagement still does not go beyond shallow ventures such as ‘river tourism’. Of course, there is still hope and there is much to do, provided we engage with our rivers on a deeper level.

Our awareness about conservation has to begin with empathy for the less privileged. Unfortunately, it is mainly the highly educated and urban elite that can afford to say that they care about conservation today. But do they sympathise with the historically marginalised communities and societies that share their space with remarkable animals like the river dolphin and gharial? For instance, would we here, in Bangalore, really take a step out, and visit places in Bihar, or UP, or the Chambal, to know more about people's hard lives in these places? 

To read more stories from the Endangered Species Series, click here.