Just 30 years ago, the Karnali River was home to approximately 100 Ganges River Dolphins. But according to conservationists, there are only six of them left.
Time is running out for Nepal’s population of Gange River Dolphins (Platanista gangetica gangetica), a rare freshwater species. Currently classified as endangered by the IUCN, several threats have forced this freshwater dolphin to the verge of regional extinction in the Karnali River:
- Water development projects: The construction of dams and barrages has fragmented dolphin populations, and degraded downstream habitats and food supplies. Dolphins also become stranded in canals, with no way to return. For example, when dolphins come down to Girijapuri, they cannot return once they cross the dam, just 15 kilometers from Nepal’s border.
- Hunting: Tribal people in the upper Brahmaputra kill the dolphins for their meat, and fishermen in the middle reaches of the Ganges use the dolphin’s oil as a fish attractant.
- Pollution: The rivers are at capacity for pollution and can no longer dilute the agricultural poisons that are dumped in them, and this is compounded by upstream water development projects.
- Overfishing: In the border areas, both Nepalis and Indian fishermen have reduced the number of small fish to the point where many dolphins have starved to death.
Conservationists are dismayed at the lack of protection the dolphins have received, and some locals believe the private sector would do a better job of protecting the endangered dolphins – and perhaps even bring more tourists.
Just this week, it was reported that local residents saw four Ganges River Dolphins in a tributary of the Karnali. While certainly an exciting site, it is also tragic that more than half of the dolphins’ population could be seen in a single glance.
And the population of Ganges River Dolphins in the Brahmaputra River currently faces yet another threat: Oil exploration, which means explosives and airguns will be used on the river bed.
Image source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/26162032@N03/ / CC BY-SA 2.0
About Rhishja Cota-Larson
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