KHAIRPUR: Stranded Indus dolphin found dead in Khairpur as people of the Faiz Ganj village area saw something floating on the surface of the Ali Nawaz stream Tuesday morning.
A group of men was immediately sent to inspect the mystery creature. After 15 minutes, they came back with a dead Indus dolphin.
A video of the incident showed the mammal lying lifeless on the ground as a group of people gathered around. This was not the first time an Indus dolphin was seen in the area, but the fascination was always the same.
The fishermen of the area said that dolphins often get stranded in canals and streams while crossing the Sukkur barrage. “They forget their way back and then end up getting stranded,” one of the residents said.
Meanwhile, Sindh Wildlife officer Adnan Hamid said that a team has been dispatched to the area. “We will conduct a post-mortem examination of the dolphin to determine whether its death was natural or occurred because of human intervention.”
Earlier this week, the wildlife department rescued another stranded Indus dolphin from the Warah Canal in Sukkur. It was later released upstream of the Sukkur Barrage near Seven Sisters.
According to wildlife inspector Javed Mahar, in the last two years, at least 35 dolphins have been rescued. In August, the department took four men, accused of murdering the mammal, to court as well.
The blind Indus dolphin is one of the world’s most threatened mammals and has been officially declared endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. There are approximately 2,000 dolphins in Pakistan found in the River Indus from Thatta to Mianwali. Of these, around 1,400 are in Sindh.
The blind Indus dolphin is a unique species found only in Pakistan but due to over-fishing, illegal fishing practices, and shrinkage of the River Indus, its population has been threatened.
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