By Rafiqul Islam
DHAKA, Jan 4, 2019 (BSS) – The Bangladesh Forest Department has started
forming dolphin conservation teams involving community people to protect the
endangered aquatic species in the rivers of the Sundarbans, the world’s
largest mangrove forest.
“We’ve already formed three dolphin conservation teams in the Sundarbans
and will constitute more such groups to protect dolphins,” Md Modinul Ahsan,
Divisional Forest Officer and National Project Director told BSS.
Noting that the conservation teams are working voluntarily to create
awareness among the community people so that they come forward to save
dolphins in the Sundarbans, he said the team members have already received
training to this effect.
Modinul said when dolphins are caught in the nets of fishermen in the
Sundarbans’ rivers, the conservation teams immediately inform the forest
officials about the incidents and thus dolphins are rescued and released to
nature.
The Sundarbans is a home to the Asia’s last two remaining freshwater
dolphin species – the endangered Ganges River Dolphin and Irrawaddy Dolphin.
To protect the Sundarbans dolphins, the conservation teams are being formed
under ‘the Expanding the Protected Area System to Incorporate Aquatic Systems
Project’.
With financial support from the United Nations Development Program (UNDP)
and the Global Environment Facility (GEF), the Forest Department in
collaboration with IUCN Bangladesh is implementing the project.
IUCN Programme Coordinator ABM Sarwar Alam said three dolphin conservation
teams have already been formed in the Sundarbans and such four teams will be
floated soon to monitor and check fishing in the dolphin protected areas of
the mangrove forest.
The department has so far identified several hotspots in Sela-Supati
rivers, Sibsa River, the estuarine area around Putney Island, Pasur River,
Baleshawr Estuary, and the Pankhali confluence, covering an area of 571
square kilometres.
In 2012, the government declared the Dhangmari, Chandpai and Dudhmukhi
areas of Pasur and Andharmanik rivers as ‘dolphin sanctuaries’, covering 32
linear kilometres.
Sarwar Alam said after introduction of the conservation teams, fishing
declines by 70 percent in Dhangmari sanctuary and that is why the state of
dolphin is good there.
A huge number of cargos ply through the canal of Chandpai sanctuary every
day, posing threat to dolphins, he said, adding boundary of the channel has
already been demarked for plying water vessels, so dolphins could be
protected controlling vessel movement.
Dolphin still in danger: Sundarbans is the only place where the Ganges
river dolphins and Irrawaddy dolphins are found together. But these are now
endangered mammals due to both natural and manmade causes.
The population of Ganges and Irrawaddy Dolphins in the Bangladesh portion
of the Sundarbans was around 225 and 451 respectively, estimated by the
Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS).
Dolphins are frequently killed getting trapped in fishing nets. An official
survey shows dolphins are facing threat by 70 percent to incidental killing
by fishing net while 8 percent to poison fishing, 6 percent to decline of
fish and crustaceans, 6 percent to decrease of freshwater flow and 5 percent
to siltation.
According to an unofficial survey, at least 130 dolphins were killed in the
riverine, coastal and marine waters of Bangladesh from January 2007 to April
2016 either because they were trapped in fishing nets or injured by the
propellers of ships.
To build capacity and increase the awareness among the communities and
other stakeholders for protecting dolphins, the Forest Department is now
implementing an outreach, capacity building, and management plan, which is a
component of the Expanding the Protected Area System to Incorporate Important
Aquatic Ecosystems Projects project.