All 10 stranded dolphins in safe waters now

Last two stranded Gangetic dolphins in Lakhimpur swam to safety after 48 hours. Mother and calf reached safe waters with help from forest officials.

Around 12 pm on Sunday, the last two of the ten Gangetic dolphins stranded in the shallow waters of Sharada Canal in Lakhimpur swam to safety, forest officials said. They were stuck there for around 48 hours.

At one moment, the calf was seen leaping to the surface as it swam towards the river with its mother. The scene was captured by forest officials. (Sourced)

“The last two dolphins to swim out were a mother and her calf. All stranded dolphins have reached safe water levels. Since they live in these waters, we did not drive them far but managed to get them to an area where water is deep enough for them,” Lakhimpur divisional forest officer Sanjay Biswal said.

At one point, the calf was seen leaping to the surface as it swam towards the river with its mother. The scene was captured by forest officials.

The stranded dolphins were first spotted by locals and forest staff during routine pre-monsoon maintenance work.

At least nine feet of water was required to keep the dolphins protected against high temperatures. With water in the canal reaching as low as three feet and temperatures soaring, the dolphins’ lives were at risk.

“The dolphins were stuck at two locations in the canal. We were more worried about one of them as water level there was less,” said Biswal.

The stranded dolphins were about 12 kilometres away from the river Ghaghra and near Chakai Gaon, Bel and Jhamnagar villages.

“Since the dolphins were more in number, we couldn’t go with the option to shift them with human intervention,” said Arunima Singh, a biologist and representative of Turtle Survival Alliance (TSA), a global conservation organisation.

“The safest way to rescue them was to bring the water levels in the canal and the river at par so that the dolphins swim back. This saved them without the need for human contact,” Dr Vipul Maurya, a wildlife biologist who works with Wildlife Institute of India (WII), said.

Representatives from WWF, WII and Ganga rejuvenation teams were at the site to help the forest and irrigation departments in the resuce.

In 2023 too, some dolphins had to be rescued in the region, but then the water there was not as shallow.

WII estimates the presence of 4,000 dolphins in the Ganga and its tributaries. In Uttar Pradesh, their number is nearly 2,000. With inputs from Deo Kant Pandey