Vadodara, May 5
A team of the Gujarat forest department has been sent to the state’s Bharuch district after villagers there claimed they had sighted two dolphins in the Narmada. The dolphin is not a native of the water bodies of these parts and so the team will first verify the claim and then take further action as per standard protocol, an official said Sunday.
“The villagers have claimed that they saw two dolphins in the Narmada in Sakkarpur Borbhatha area in Ankleshwar tehsil. We have deputed a team of range forest officers to verify the claim and take further action,” said Bhanaben Desai, forest official in Ankleshwar.
RFO Mahipal Singh, who was part of the team that visited the site, said villagers had said the two dolphins were 10 feet and 4.5 feet long, respectively, and that the smaller one was possibly a calf.
Raj Patel, superintendent of the forest department, said if the claim was true, it would be the first time dolphin sighting in the Sakkarpur Borbhatha area.
Villager Ambubhai Naranbhai Patel claimed people took photographs of the dolphins and then pushed them back into the water.
The river dolphin is a critically endangered species in India and has been included in Schedule I of the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972, thereby according them the highest degree of protection.
It was declared India’s national aquatic animal in October, 2009. — PTI
from The Tribune http://bit.ly/2LpITIM
via Today’s News Headlines
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