Protection of Ganges River Dolphins in Assam

The Ganges River Dolphin is the “State Aquatic Animal of Assam” declared in 2008 and the Central government notified it as the “National Aquatic Animal of India” in 2009. But though, they are deprived of two basic things "food and water". Kulsi river of Kamrup district, Assam, India was known to hold the largest congregation of its breeding population in whole of Southeast Asia. But the river is sucked of its water, excessive sand mining, blockage, and infrastructural development depriving the dolphins as well as dependent people of fish and water. We are yet to see any actions, despite of several largely allocated funds.

News

1. River Dolphin On Verge Of Extinction. Shib Shankar Chatterjee. News Blaze. October 13, 2009

2. Call to tap dolphin-centric tourism prospects in Kulshi river. Assam Tribune. September 15, 2010

3. Sand-sucking machines taking away river dolphin home in Assam. Kishore Talukdar. NEZINE October 02, 2015

4. Kulshi River in Crisis. Kishore Talukdar. Eastern Panorama. March 2017

5. Save Dora Beel – Save River Dolphin. NENOW NEWS. March 06, 2018

6. Brahmaputra tributaries no longer secure dolphin habitats. Mubina Akhtar. Northeast Now. January 23, 2019

7. Assam’s river dolphins are in distress, but who’s to blame? Jayanta K Goswami. East Mojo. May 31, 2019.

8. Assam: Carcass of river dolphin found afloat in Dibru river. Northeast Now. May 29, 2020

9. Assam OIL fire: Dolphin death due to toxic substance, says autopsy. Rishu Kalantri. East Mojo. June 01, 2020.

10. The Xihu’s last refuge: An extract from ‘The Braided River’. Samrat Choudhury. The Hindu. June 06. 2021

11. River Dolphin Allegedly Sold Off At Local Fish Market in Dibrugarh, Assam Police Steps Up. The Sentinel. August 20, 2021

12. Two rare river dolphins found dead in Morakolohi River, Boko. A correspondent. September 03, 2021

13. Two river dolphins found dead in Boko. A correspondent. September 03, 2021

14. Kulsi River must be saved to conserve Xihu. The Sentinel. February 22, 2022

15. Threats to the Kulsi river in Assam. Sushanta Talukdar & Ritu Raj Konwar. Frontline. February 25, 2022

16. Environmentalists Are Worried: River dolphin of Northeast India on verge of extinction. Shib Shankar Chatterjee. Scribd

Reports

1. Abdul Wakid. 2007. Final technical report on ecology and conservation of residential populations of Gangetic Dolphins in Brahmaputra river system, India.

2. Abdul Wakid & Gill Braulik. 2009. Final Technical Report to Sir Peter Scott Fund, IUCN on Protection of Endangered Ganges river dolphin in Brahmaputra river, India.

3. Action Plan for Kulsi river near Kukurmara NH37 crossing

Research articles

1. Chandasudha Goswami, Sayad Ali. 2012. Ichthyofaunal Diversity of Kulsi River: Prime habitat of Dolphin. Biological Forum 4(2): 38-44.

2. M. R. Islam, R. Bania, D. Baruah, S. P. Biswas, A. Gupta. 2012. Hydrochemistry of Kulsi River, a tributary of the Brahmaputra, NE India. European Journal of Experimental Biology 2(6): 2451-2455.

3. Shah Nawaz Jelil. 2016. Rich biodiversity of River Kulsi. Current Science 110 (10): 1882.

4. Gunjan Gupta. 2018. Community attitude towards conserving the Gangetic Dolphins (Platanista gangetica gangetica, Roxburgh, 1801) in the Kulsi River, Assam, India. International Journal of Science and Research 9(1): 1090-1100.

Blogs

1. A day with river dolphins of Kulsi