Mumbai, May 3: The Punjab government in first of its kind has decided to conduct an organised census of Indus River Dolphins, one of the rarest species. The reason behind carrying out this census is to plan the conservation of this endangered species. The Punjab government along with (World Wildlife Fund) WWF-India has decided to conduct the activity for over a period of five days. Previously, the researchers had merely spotted the dolphins.

According to the officials from the Department of Forests and Wildlife Preservation, Punjab and WWF-India would be working in two teams to estimate the population of the dolphins.

According to the previous study, this dolphin species are found only in India and Pakistan, confined to the 185 km stretch between Talwara and Harike Barrage in India's Beas River in Punjab, one of the five rivers flowing under Indus river system. “We are trying to establish their near accurate population as to plan their conservation accordingly. It is the first organised census, and previously we had merely spotted them,” Kuldeep Kumar, Chief Wildlife Warden, Punjab told IANS.

Suresh Babu, Director River Wetland and Water Policy, WWF-India said that the most flourishing population of the Indus dolphin, platanista gangetica minor (South Asian river dolphin) is found across Pakistan wherein their numbers are estimated to be around 1,800 over a stretch of 1,500 km of the Indus river.

Babu further stated dolphins are a key indicator of river health- if a river is healthy the dolphins will be there and if not, we have the example of Sutlej.” Experts claimed in Sutlej river, decades back they were dolphins found. However, river pollution is believed to be a significant cause of their extinction from the habitat.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on May 03, 2018 07:16 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).