After 30 years endangered Gangetic Dolphins return to Hooghly amidst Lockdown!

Can you imagine endangered Dolphins playing along Baboo Ghat! Well, this is not a story of fiction, but a true picture of the critically endangered Dolphins coming back to the River Hooghly thanks to the lack of pollution and silence of the Lockdown.

The South Asian River Dolphins are critically endangered and for almost three decades they had vanished from the waters of Hooghly. Now they are being regularly spotted near the ghats, thanks to the reduced water pollution, due to the lockdown. The water quality in Hooghly river has improved significantly due to reduced pollution and industrial activity. In a recent interview to the media, Biswajit Roy Chowdhury, a senior environmental activist stated he spotted a couple of dolphins at Babooghat. Gangetic Dolphins are the only freshwater dolphins in the world and hence are a nature’s delight. 

However, 30 years ago, these rare Gangetic dolphins were regular visitors along the shores of Kolkata but were forced to leave their habitat (Hooghly river) due to increased water pollution and human activity. In a study conducted in 2017 by the Worldwide Fund for Nature-India, it was found that the population of Gangetic dolphins was barely 1,200 to 1,800. And, apart from pollution, one of the biggest threat to their existence in the Hooghly river was human activity and big water transport. Now thanks to the Lockdown, they are playing in large numbers along the ghats of Kolkata!