LARKANA: A team of the provincial wildlife department on Tuesday safely rescued a third of the five blind dolphins that had reportedly gone astray from Indus River into Dadu canal. It was immediately transported to Sukkur for its release into the river.

SWD Larkana conservator Aijaz Ahmed said that the department had received information about the five dolphins’ movement in the canal a few days ago.

He said the Indus Rescue Team, tasked with looking after an estimated 1,419 dolphins in Indus, moved swiftly to locate them and found two of them in the Mirzapur section of the canal a couple of days ago.

During the search for another three, the rescue team received information that one more was spotted by people in the canal near Pir Jan Mohammed village. After a five-hour-long search, the team found it near Naudero and managed to safely rescue it on Tuesday, he said.

The rescue team comprised conservator Aijaz Ahmed, deputy conservator Adnan Hamid, field officer (Sukkur) Akhtar Hussain Talpur, Uzma Khalid of the WWF and others.

The team said they had information about movement of two/three more dolphins in the canal.

A large number of villagers witnessed the rescue operation.

Published in Dawn, January 12th, 2022