C-NES Gives New Life To “ Whale Of The River”

Thanks to the awareness programmes launched by the Center for North East Studies and Policy Research (C-NES), an NGO based in Guwahati, Gangetic Dolphins or River Dolphins, an endangered aquatic species of India has got new life. The relentless efforts of the NGO has turned the killers of this unique fresh water mammals into their protectors.

This community-based campaign launched by the C-NES in the year 2006, has enhanced the population of the fresh-water Dolphin in the river Brahmaputra and its tributary river Gadadhar in the Dhubri district of Lower Assam. Besides Dhubri, CNES has also identified two other dolphin-breeding locations - Kukurmara in Kamrup district, where the river Kulsi meets the Brahmaputra, and Guijan in Tinsukia district.

Earlier, fishermen of this region used to kill these Gangetic Dolphins ( Platanista Gangetic) to extract oil from its blubber. So that it can be used as bait to catch neriya fish. But the conservation campaign run by the NGO has helped both the River Dolphins and the fishermen of the region. It has improve the living standard of these killer turned protectors by creating alternative livelihood opportunities for them, and also by introducing alternatives to certain dolphin-based products like the fish bait.

C-NES has also arranged awareness camps for the localites, residing in the dolphin habitat areas so that they can have the knowledge about the forest regulations regarding the killing of Dolphins. These aquatic mammals are protected as a Schedule I species, under the Wildlife Protection Act 1972. In the year 1996, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has also declared the River Dolphins as an 'Endangered' species.

Due to the conservation initiatives taken by the C-NES, population of Dolphins have been increasing tremendously. Aaranyak, a society for biodiversity conservation in North East India which engaged in a scientific has conducted a survey on the river dolphins in Assam in 2008 and revealed that there is a significant rise of dolphins from 250 dolphins in 2005 to 264 river dolphins in 2008.

Apart from the conservation of the River Dolphin, C-NES is also trying hard to include both Kukurmara and Guijan in the official tourism map of Assam as these places have a high density of river Dolphin in the entire Assam.

Recently, on the 2008's World Environment Day, the Assam Government has declared Gangetic Dolphins as the 'State Aquatic Animal'. It is expected that similar to the conservation of other endangered species of Assam, this declaration will help a lot in the preservation of habitats of River Dolphin in Assam.