Three arrested for killing rare Gangetic dolphin in Pratapgarh
GANGETIC DOLPHINS USUALLY LIVE IN DEEP WATERS IN THE GANGA AND YAMUNA RIVERS IN THIS REGION
PRAYAGRAJ : Three persons allegedly involved in beating a rare Gangetic dolphin to death have been arrested and sent to jail by the Pratapgarh police. The dolphin had strayed into Sharda canal in Nawabganj area of Pratapgarh district on December 31, 2020, officials said.
“Some villagers had caught the dolphin and brought it to a site having shallow water. They attacked the dolphin with sticks and axe, resulting in its death on the spot. Some persons had even made a video of the incident, which went viral, showing a group of men mercilessly beating the dolphin,” said Akhilesh Singh, the station house officer (SHO) of Nawabganj police station.
On the complaint of local forest department employee Dinesh Kumar Patel, an FIR was lodged against unidentified persons under the Wildlife Protection Act. On the basis of video footage, three of the attackers were identified as Rahul, Anuj and Rahul Lal. The identified trio was arrested in a raid on Thursday and sent to jail, he added.
The other accused would also be nabbed soon, he said.
After killing the dolphin, the group of locals had fled the scene when village head Manoj Singh reached the spot on receiving the information from fellow villagers. Local police and forest department employee Dinesh Kumar Patel also reached the spot and sent the dead dolphin for a postmortem examination, which established the death was due to being beaten and cut with sharp-edged tools.
Gangetic dolphins usually live in deep waters in the Ganga and Yamuna rivers in this region. They often stray into small tributaries and canals that are interconnected.