The efforts to conserve the endangered Gangetic Dolphins in Assam seem to have got more strength now. Yes. A project to restore the important habitats for the Gangetic Dolphins (Xihu as it is locally known), put forwarded by Assam-based nature conservation organisation, Aaranyak has own an international online public voting competition.
The competition was organised by the European Outdoor Conservation Association, a Switzerland based non-profit association, and the project proposed by the Aaranyak got the first position with 4,736 votes.
Dr.Abdul Wakid, Head of Aaranyak’s Gangetic Dolphin Research and Conservation Initiative, said this on Thursday while adding that while Aaranyak has got the first position, UK’s Shark conservation project got second position with 3,947 votes and Peru’s Manta Ray project got third position with 3,681 votes.
“Shortlisted from 86 projects initially, Aaranyak’s Dolphin conservation project was one of the seven from six countries in the Nature category. The online voting in all categories was opened from September 6 to October 6, where total 36,100 votes were counted with highest 19,735 votes in Nature category, 7686 votes in Outdoor category and 8,689 votes in Alpine category,” he said adding that Aaranyak’s Dolphin project not only received the highest votes in Nature category, but was also able to secure the highest votes among all the three category of projects.
“Through this project, Aaranyak plans to do habitat restoration activities in 30 most important dolphin habitats covering 100 km river stretch of the Brahmaputra River in association with local communities. These restoration activities include river cleaning, prevention of domestic garbage dump to the river, prevention of oil and grease dump to the river by the motor boats and ferries, prevention of riparian vegetation destruction and regular cleanliness monitoring by local communities. All these activities will not only help the about 600 endangered Gangetic dolphins inhabiting the Brahmaputras, but also the other associated aquatic animals living in those river stretches as well as the livelihood of river side people, which altogether will lead into the Mission Clean Brahmaputra,” said Dr. Wakid, who will lead the project.
It may be mentioned here that currently there are around 600 Gangetic dolphins in Brahmaputra river system within Assam. Aaranyak through its Gangetic Dolphin Research and Conservation Initiative has been conducting conservation activities for last 10 years, for which the population of the species has been increasing from initial 250 in 2005 to 635 in 2012.
These Gangetic Dolphins have, however, been facing severe threats from poaching, accidental killing and habitat degradation. Aaranyak has undertaken activities to reduce and prevent poaching and accidental killing-which in fact reduced dolphin mortalities in Brahmaputra by 70 percent in last 7 years. However, this is the first time that effort is going to take place to reduce habitat degradation for the species in Brahmaputra through this project.