Freshwater dolphins in danger: Experts

Freshwater dolphins, popularly known as shusuk, are disappearing fast from the country’s rivers due to illegal catching and the loss of their habitats caused by reduced river level and water contamination. “River dolphins face extinction as they are losing their habitats due to the loss of the navigability of rivers and their water contamination,” Wildteam chief executive Prof Dr Anwarul Islam told UNB. Terming the navigability loss of rivers the key reason behind the fall in dolphin population, Dr Anwar said the rivers in Bangladesh are losing navigability fast for lack of water flow, forcing the dolphins to take shelter in deeper parts of the rivers. “Even then they cannot escape catching,” he added. A survey report conducted by the US-based Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) said there were 350 Gangetic river Dolphins, 6,000 Irrawady dolphins, over 1,000 bottlenose Dolphins, about 1,400 Finless Porpoises, and a significant number of Indo-Pacific Hump-backed dolphins, Pan-tropical Spotted Dolphins and Spinner Dolphins in the Sundarbans and adjacent water bodies and the swathes of no-ground areas. “Fishermen spread nets in every inch of river water, and dolphins get entangled in their nets, and those are ultimately killed. People think that the oil produced from dolphin could be used for curing many diseases,” said Dr Anwar, a teacher of Zoology Department at Dhaka University. Once dolphins used to be seen in all the major rivers of the country, but now they can be found only in some big rivers like the Padma, Jamuna and Meghna and some others in the south. According to the Red Book of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), dolphins are now an endangered species, according to a news agency.