On the occasion of International Freshwater Dolphin Day, a discussion meeting on increasing public awareness of the need to protect freshwater and river dolphins was organized by the Department of Forest at Bana Bhaban in Dhaka on Sunday.
Md Shahab Uddin, Minister of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, attended the discussion as the chief guest while Md Amir Hosain Chowdhury, Chief Conservator of Forests, presided over the discussion.
Md Shahab Uddin said: “The presence of dolphins, according to fishermen, indicates that there are lots of fish in the vicinity. As a result, while fishing in protected regions, dolphins become entangled in nets. Dolphins must surface every three and a half minutes to breathe. However, they choke to death when captured in nets.”
He further said that other threats include pollution from upstream industrial development, obstructions in river flow due to sedimentation, human intervention like dams, and poison fishing.
“I will request the Ministry of Fisheries to take measures to protect dolphins, just as the initiative has been taken to save Hilsa fish,” Shahab Uddin said.
Md Amir Hosain Chowdhury said: “To stop dolphin hunting, we have created seven neighborhood-based ‘Dolphin Conservation Teams' to promote awareness and assist in the overall conservation of the species.”
Deputy Forest Minister Habibun Nahar said: "We should hold a variety of awareness-building activities in the regions near dolphin hotspots. When dolphin sanctuaries were established and put into action, we noticed favorable results since the dolphin population in the Sundarbans region increased by 55%.”
The Eastern Sundarbans Reserve Forest, where dolphin populations are at their maximum, is home to the first three dolphin sanctuaries, according to the Bangladesh Forest Department, which were established in January 2012.
Following that, three more dolphin sanctuaries were established in the Padma and Jamuna River systems, primarily for Ganges River Dolphins because the species is common in those rivers.
Finally, the Forest Department established three additional dolphin sanctuaries within and around the Sundarbans in 2019.
There were several other speakers in the discussion, including Dr Farhina Ahmed, Secretary of the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Iqbal Abdullah Harun, Additional Secretary of the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, and Raquibul Amin, Country Representative of the IUCN.
A study of International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) also states that 78% of all dolphin deaths are related to illegal fishing practices using banned fishing gear in Bangladesh.
According to the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), there are five species of freshwater dolphin found in 15 countries in the world including Bangladesh. These are the Ganges River Dolphin, Indus River Dolphin, Chinese River Dolphin or Baiji (already extinct), Irrawaddy Dolphin, and Amazon River Dolphin.
Two of the five species – the Ganges River Dolphins and the Irrawaddy Dolphins – are found in Bangladesh.
