Despite the receding Gangotri glacier, huge habitat loss and sewage problem, the river has re-invented itself and is now home to about 2,500 dolphins and huge groups of birds, reports Chetan Chauhan.
Despite the receding Gangotri glacier, huge habitat loss and sewage problem, river Ganga has re-invented itself and is now home to about 2,500 dolphins, huge groups of birds like Greater Ajutant, Indian Scimiator and Sarus Crane.
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Dr Ravindra Kumar Sinha of Patna University said, “These are positive signs for Ganga. Not many birds were spotted about a decade ago in the river but in the last two-three years, groups of these birds have been sighted in the plains of Ganga.”
The most remarkable revival has been of Gangetic dolphins, whose population had gone down to less than a thousand in early 1990s because of poaching. “Till 1996, no dolphin was sighted before Bijnore barrage. Then, fishermen were provided an alternative for dolphin oil and the situation improved in downstream of Ganga,” Sinha said.
Better water quality since 1980s and dolphins’ ability to evolve to the ecological changes in Ganga were cited as two major reasons for their survival. Earlier, dolphin deaths were reported because of noise pollution caused by motorised boats. “Now, one can see dolphins floating close to motorised boats,” Sinha said justifying that the dolphins have adjusted to technology in Ganga.
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The Ganga basin is also home for tree-climbing deer, world’s largest venomous snake, the world’s smallest pig and the world’s tallest flying bird Sarus Crane. The Sunderbans in lower Gangetic plain is home to Royal Bengal Tiger, which according to the latest census has survived poaching threat.
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The Ganga basin is also home for tree-climbing deer, world’s largest venomous snake, the world’s smallest pig and the world’s tallest flying bird Sarus Crane. The Sunderbans in lower Gangetic plain is home to Royal Bengal Tiger, which according to the latest census has survived poaching threat.
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The new life of Ganga will be telecast on Discovery Channel’s three part series --- India’s River of Life : Ganges – starting from October 24. Each part will deal with different aspect of the river.
The first comprehensive ecological survey of Ganga was done in 1879 by John Anderson. Then tigers, elephants, rhinos, reptiles and many other species of birds and animals were found.
Now, many of them like rhino has vanished but Ganga had attracted some new species like Greater Adjutant, which was remotely found in the Gangetic plains.
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But, how much Ganga’s ecology has changed is not known as no comprehensive survey has been done since Independence. Now, the environment ministry is getting one such survey done.
Chetan Chauhan is the National Affairs Editor looking into all aspects of news and features from across India. A Chevening scholar with over three decades of experience in reporting and news management, Chetan has extensively covered all important aspects of the social sector, political economy, environment and climate change nationally and internationally. He did a journalism course at the Reuters Institute of Journalism in Oxford and Digital Media training at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He started as a reporter with The Statesman in 1996 and joined the Hindustan Times in 2000 in the metro bureau covering environment, crime and Delhi politics. He covered hot local news, from the Jessica Lal murder case to the rebellion of Delhi Congress MLAs against then Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, to the replacement of toxic vehicle fuel with cleaner compressed natural gas (CNG) in the national capital. Some of his stories on air pollution became part of the Supreme Court’s landmark MC Mehta versus Government of India case in the National Capital Region (NCR), forcing the government to take corrective measures. As part of the national political bureau since 2004, he covered important central sectors such as environment, education, social justice, labour, rural development, water resources, renewable energy, agriculture, broadcasting and the Planning Commission for more than a decade producing several exclusive and investigative breaking stories. His specialisation is the environment, having covered at least a dozen United Nations global conferences on climate change, biodiversity and wildlife including climate summits in Paris, Copenhagen and Bali. He also covered India’s two five-year plans ---11th and 12th and reported on drafting and execution of right based laws such as Right to Education, Right to Information and rural job guarantee law, MG-NREGA, now being introduced in new format as VG-RAM-G Act. He has in-depth knowledge of social sector issues. He was one of the first to report on tigers vanishing from Sariska and Panna wildlife reserves in 2004 and 2008, respectively, leading to the setting up of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and the introduction of stringent penal provisions for poaching. He has written extensively on the rising human-animal conflict in India and the degradation of India’s biodiversity hotspots because of mining and other activities. Since 2004, Chetan has covered Parliament comprehensively and participated in training on the nuanced coverage of Parliament proceedings. He has travelled extensively across India to cover national and provincial elections since 1998, especially in the Hindi heartland states, considered India’s road to power. He writes a regular column for Hindustan Times, Ecostani, on important national politics, economy, Himalayan ecology and environmental issues. His other responsibilities include providing inputs for edits and edit page articles for the publication, apart from managing news flow from across India.
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