More than 10 species living in Ganga face extinction
NEWDELHI: At least 10 species, including the Ganges river dolphin and the gharial, found in Ganga for centuries, are on the verge of extinction, according to new report released by the ministry of water resources last week.
While the dolphin is listed as an endangered species according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN ) Red list, the gharial is critically endangered on the same list. The other species include birds such as the black bellied tern and Indian skimmer; turtles such as the northern river terrapin, three stripped roofed turtle, red-crowned roofed turtle; and the golden mahaseer fish. The sarus crane, the mugger crocodile and the snow trout have been put in the vulnerable list.
The report ‘Macro Fauna of the Ganga River — Status of Conservation of Select Aquatic Species’ was prepared by Wildlife Institute of India (WII) Dehradun as part of the ‘Biodiversity Conservation and Ganga Rejuvenation’ project by National Mission for Clean Ganga (NMCG). The project, according to officials, aims to develop a sciencebased restoration plan for the river.
The report says the dolphin population, which was about 10,000 in late 19th century, reduced to 3,526 in 2014, adding that while the population of dolphins had stabilised between 2012 and 2015, it showed a drastic decline in recent years. The report said the dolphins are now restricted to Ganga and its larger tributaries, but have disappeared completely from the Haridwar-bijnor barrage, which is about 100km downstream of Haridwar. The report said gharials (fish-eating crocodiles) were on the verge of extinction in India by the mid-1970s, until a captive breeding programme was initiated in 1975 , taking the population to 1,200 by 1995. The report said the gharial population again showed a decline since 1999. “The presence of gharial is important for the health of the river. It eats sick fish and disappearance of gharial from the ecosystem signifies a collapse of the ecosystem owing to polluted water,’’ the report said.
CONTINUED ON P 9