Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has declared the Gangetic Dolphin as the State aquatic animal.
CM Yogi Adityanath emphasised the necessity to keep the purity of ponds and rivers. These dolphins are present in rivers like Ganga, Yamuna, Chambal, Ghaghra, Rapti, and Gerua. The estimated inhabitants of Gangetic dolphins in Uttar Pradesh is estimated at round 2000.
“It’s important for both tourists and local residents to refrain from using plastic, as it harms our water and nature,” CM Yogi Adityanath mentioned.
Additionally, CM Yogi Adityanath highlighted the significance of coaching native residents on the right way to work together with wildlife.
He additionally proposed coaching people from villages linked to the Tiger Reserve as guides, aiming to create employment alternatives and lift consciousness inside the group.
Teams of the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) and Forest Department have been just lately counting dolphins with the assistance of GPS in Garh Ganga on the Hapur district of Uttar Pradesh.
Regarding the continuing dolphin census in Garh Ganga, DFO Sanjay Kumar Mall mentioned, “This is a campaign named Meri Ganga Meri Dolphin 2023 campaign. Under this, counting of dolphins is being done in river Ganga from near Muzaffarpur Barrage to the entire Narora Barrage. In this, counting is being done through joint action by both WWF and Forest Department teams. There is a method of counting in it, such that there are two teams, each of which runs at a speed of 10 kilometres per hour, and there is a gap of 10 minutes between them. The entire team from Muzaffarpur to Narora Barrage will see how many dolphins dip in this interval.”
“That team watches the dolphin diving and notes down its GPS location, and then another team comes and notes down its GPS location. It shows that if it comes after an interval of 10 minutes then it is the same dolphin, if it does not come then it is another dolphin then the counting is done in the same way,” DFO Sanjay Kumar added.
The DFO additionally mentioned that within the previous information, there have been 22 dolphins counted in 2015, 30 dolphins in 2016, 32 dolphins in 2017, 33 dolphins in 2018, 35 dolphins in 2019 and 41 dolphins in 2020.
(with inputs from ANI)
