SUKKUR: At least two blind Indus dolphins were found dead on Saturday, while another was rescued by officials following a hunt, sparked by a social media post.

The post showed a dead dolphin being carried by a man, along with the claim that it was killed by an unidentified person or persons on Saturday. This prompted wildlife officials in Khairpur to launch an extensive search operation to locate “five surviving dolphins having gone astray into different irrigation channels”.

Sources in Khairpur informed wildlife officials, after watching the post, that some villagers caught the rare blind Indus dolphin from a shoal in the Pir Jo Goth irrigation channel and killed it. The villagers uploaded the picture of the dead fish on social media, sources said, adding that at least five other dolphins had gone astray into different irrigation channels in Khairpur while following their instinctive path in the Indus River.

Wildlife Sukkur deputy conservator Adnan Hamid, taking notice of the social media post, said an extensive search had promptly been mounted to rescue the dolphins. He said he and the Khairpur district officer, Anwar Bhutto, were leading the rescue teams.

Social media post prompts extensive search operation, local officials scour irrigation channels for animals ‘gone astray’

“One team spotted a dolphin in the Ali Nawaz channel along Jalal Chaudgi area of Khairpur and rescued it, he said. It was then released into the river near Sukkur Barrage, he added.

Mr Hamid told local reporters that the rescued dolphin was a female aged about three years and weighed about 18 kilograms. It was three feet long, he added.

He said the search in Tharari Mirwah and Dour channels as well as near Khairpur regulator was underway to rescue other dolphins.

Mr Hamid said that a case under wildlife law would be lodged against those found responsible for the killing of the dolphin seen in the social media post.

There were reports that another dolphin was found entangled in the Gate 53 of Sukkur Barrage and died before it could be rescued.

Mr Hamid revealed that there were reports of villagers “poisoning water in Indus when its level goes down” to catch fish. “We have written to the irrigation department and [Khairpur] city administration urging them to take measures against this illegal activity but no action has been taken so far,” he said.

According to a 2018 report issued by the Sukkur wildlife, there are only 1,416 blind dolphins between Sukkur and Guddu barrages.

Published in Dawn, November 19th, 2023