Carcass of Gangetic Dolphin found floating in Odisha river
Forest department officials said the carcass of the Gangetic Dolphin was caught by a fisherman of Kruttibaspur village in Bhadrak district when he was pulling in his net in Salandi river on Wednesday.
The carcass of a Gangetic Dolphin weighing a little more than 50 kg was caught in the net of a fisherman in a river in coastal Bhadrak district, officials said on Thursday.
Forest department officials said the carcass of the Gangetic Dolphin was caught by a fisherman of Kruttibaspur village in Bhadrak district when he was pulling in his net in Salandi river on Wednesday. Forest ranger of Bhadrak, Subas Nayak said the sarpanch of Govindpur gram panchayat informed him about the dead dolphin.
“The dolphin was at least 5.5 feet long and did not have any injury mark. After inspecting the carcass, I was certain that it was a Gangetic Dolphin as it had a long, pointed snout that is characteristic of all river dolphins. Both the upper and lower jaw sets of long sharp teeth were visible even when the mouth was closed. We are carrying out a post-mortem of the carcass to know how it died,” said the ranger.
DFO in-charge of Bhadrak Wildlife Division, Bikash Ranjan Das said in November last year a smaller female Gangetic Dolphin was found floating in Gobari river of Kendrapara district. “It may have travelled upstream from the sea or may have travelled from some other river. In 2005 too, we had found a Gangetic dolphin in Budhabalanga river of Balasore district,” he said.
