Wildlife department fails to preserve Indus blind dolphin: seven found dead in a week

The Sindh Wildlife Department has failed to preserve a protected species, Indus blind dolphin, as seven dolphins were found dead in the Indus River between Guddu and Sukkur barrages during last one week. Two blind dolphins were caught in the gates of Guddu barrage on Sunday while five others were found dead in various parts of Sukkur and Guddu barrages.
The Indus blind dolphin, a protected species, is fighting battle of survival in the Indus River because of inefficiency of officials of Sindh wildlife department.
Though there is a well-established office of Wildlife department in Sukkur with skilled staff but they all are sleeping deeply and dolphins are going to die day by day.
In January 2011 also, six dolphins were found dead in the river between Guddu and Sukkur barrages and the Sindh wildlife department had blamed fishermen for these deaths.
The department alleges that fishermen are using poisonous chemicals to kill fish, which is contaminating the river water, whereas the fishermen say that the contamination is through no fault of theirs.
But, no action had been taken against anybody on the genocide of dolphins and authorities earlier had also overlooked the matter, as usual.
According to a survey document, available with Business Recorder, the wildlife department had found these dolphins between the Indus River's Guddu and Sukkur Barrages area after a search of about 40 years.
At present there are 602 dolphins in this stretch of the River Indus, declared as Indus Dolphin Reserve by the Sindh Wildlife Department way back in 1974. There is an Indus Dolphin Centre at Sukkur, established for monitoring and safety by the department a few years ago.
Unfortunately, the authorities of Wildlife dept did not make efforts to make the Indus blind dolphin secure. The Indus Blind Dolphin (Platanista minor) is one of the world's rarest mammals and the second most endangered freshwater river dolphin. Endemic only to Pakistan, it is a close relative of Platanista gangatica, which is found in India in the Brahmaputra and Ganges rivers.
A fisherman, Abdullah Mirbahar, told Business Recorder on telephone that earlier some of the fishermen used to kill blind dolphins for extracting oil, which is very expensive and is used for curing joints' pain. "But we don't kill them anymore," he said, adding that even if a dolphin gets entangled in their fishing nets by accident, the fishermen hurry to free it.
Talking about the deaths of dolphins, he said that this happened due to negligence of duty officers of wildlife department, as they are not serious to preserve the dolphins.
An environmentalist, Nasir Ali Panhwar, emphasised upon the officials of Wildlife department to make sure the preservation of Indus blind dolphin.
He said that Indus Blind Dolphin is a typical fresh water mammal. The body is smooth, hairless, fish-shaped and pinkish gray in colour. The skin is devoid of mucous secretions and so delicate that it can be easily cut with a slight touch.
He appealed to all environmentalists to come forward for the safety of Indus blind dolphins.