DADU: A carcass of endangered Indus Blind Dolphin was found in Dadu Canal near airport area, about six kilometers from main Sukkur barrage, on Tuesday.

The area people took out the carcass from the canal and handed it over to officials of the wildlife department, who shifted it to conservation centre for the Indus Blind Dolphins in Sukkur.

The officials said the carcass of the female mammal was four feet and three inches long and it must be around five year of age. The mammal was at great risk due to drop in water level in the Indus river, they said, adding no mark of injury was found on the carcass, still investigation was under way to find real cause of her death.

”The dolphins move in river creeks frequently during flood season in search of prey and get trapped after reduction in water level, hence they often get entangled in fishing nets or stranded into canals and distributaries and meet their eventual death,” said Sukkur region’s deputy conservator Adnan Hamid Khan.

He said that locals considered the mammal dangerous and often attacked it with sticks and guns. The department had taken legal action against such people, he said.

“Dolphins have almost gone extinct due to shortage of water between Sukkur and Kotri reach and the few that remained live at greater peril to their lives,” said Dr Ali Asghar Mahesar, an environmentalist.

World Bank’s senior environmental specialist, Takeaki Sato, urged the Sindh wildlife department to conduct at least one survey on dolphins in a year. The WB had started work on the conservation of the endangered species by releasing funds to the department, he said.

Ghulam Mohiuddin Mughal, project director of Sindh Barrages Improvement Project, said that WB had approved Rs196.5 million for the rescue and population survey of dolphins.

Imran Aziz Tunio, water resources expert, said that the water deficit between Guddu and Sukkur and Sukkur and Kotri reaches was killing the dolphins. The Indus River System Authority, therefore, should release minimal environment flows for the survival of the mammal, else, the indigenous species would disappear, he warned.

Published in Dawn, December 28th, 2022