Patna's very own dolphin research center
These loveable
and adorable carnivorous sea mammals require some lime light and the National Dolphin
Research Centre (NDRC) is a positive step on this front. It will boost conservation
efforts for the endangered Gangetic river dolphin as well as enable in-depth research
on them including changing
behavior, survival skills, food habits, cause of death and other aspects.
The officials
in Patna have stated that the construction work on the building will begin
post-monsoon this year, whose foundation stone was laid last year by chief minister Nitish
Kumar and the fund for the project had already been allocated to the building
construction department (BCD). However, it did not go any further due to some
issue with Patna University on the society formation which was eventually
sorted out.
The project
was proposed in 2011 but was stalled for eight years and now, the state
government has finally decided to speed up the work.
The NDRC
wants to establish a 4,400 square meter plot on the premises of Patna
University, close to the banks of Ganga. Approximately 1,455 dolphins have been
spotted in the Ganga by research experts and scientists reported in a survey conducted in 2018-19.
It is India’s national aquatic animal, often falling prey to illegal poaching and their numbers have been dwindling
ever since. The Gangetic Dolphin is a Schedule 1 animal
under the Wild Life (Protection) Act, 1972. They have been declared an
endangered species by the International Union for Conservation of Nature
(IUCN).
The presence
of these aquatic life forms sheds a positive ray on the healthy ecosystem that
entrails the Ganga, as they live 5-8 feet in deep water. Surviving mainly on
wide variety of fish and cephalopods, they are generally fond of turbulent waters where abundant
pry dwell. Even though they live in a zone where there is little to no current in order to conserve energy.
These
dolphins are blind and find their path through echolocation, Bihar hosts around
a half of the total 3,000 Gangetic dolphins in India.
The Indian
Gangetic river dolphin is one of the four freshwater species in the world,
other three are found in the Yangtze river in China (now extinct), the Indus river in Pakistan and the
Amazon river in South America.
This could not have come at a later time. Ever since a recent video circulated on the social media, where people (Uttar Pradesh’s Pratapgarh) were seen mauling a dolphin that had swim ashore. This made us realize how little we are aware about these water creature. So perhaps, this initiative might be able to educate the populous at large.
