Now This Is Great News,
well for me anyway,
and the Ganges River Dolphin, near the ancient village of Raja Karna in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh one of the world’s most endangered species may have a better chance of survival, a century ago the Ganges Dolphin was found across Nepal, India, and Bangladesh, from the river’s run through the Himalayan foothills down to the Bay of Bengal, by 1982 the dolphin population in India had fallen to between 4,000 and 5,000, today it is estimated to be less than 2,000,
at Raja Karna, however, the tide might just be turning, in recent years locals have been encouraged to stop fishing and to use home-made organic compost instead of chemical fertilisers and they have been taught how to build small, basic sewage treatment facilities, the results have been striking: since the early 1980s the dolphin population has more than doubled from 20 to about 55 animals, everywhere else along the Ganges the population has fallen,
a few years ago I, Neil Hardy and Anil from The Ministry Of Commerce and Industry of the Government of India went fishing for new species of fish, taking pictures as we went, the search took us to Arunachal Pradesh, Assam and Meghalaya, we travelled the Brahmaputra and some of it's tributaries, the good news is that here the use of all outboard engines on the river have been banned, normally we start looking for new species in the markets then down to the river looking at the local fishermen/women,
we travelled in this truck, as you might guess you have to be pretty quick on the brakes in this manoeuvre!
and the Ganges River Dolphin, near the ancient village of Raja Karna in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh one of the world’s most endangered species may have a better chance of survival, a century ago the Ganges Dolphin was found across Nepal, India, and Bangladesh, from the river’s run through the Himalayan foothills down to the Bay of Bengal, by 1982 the dolphin population in India had fallen to between 4,000 and 5,000, today it is estimated to be less than 2,000,
at Raja Karna, however, the tide might just be turning, in recent years locals have been encouraged to stop fishing and to use home-made organic compost instead of chemical fertilisers and they have been taught how to build small, basic sewage treatment facilities, the results have been striking: since the early 1980s the dolphin population has more than doubled from 20 to about 55 animals, everywhere else along the Ganges the population has fallen,
we travelled in this truck, as you might guess you have to be pretty quick on the brakes in this manoeuvre!
whilst there we went to see some of the rare one-horned rhinos, (Rhinoceros unicornis) brought back from the edge of extinction just a couple of hundred or so in the early1900's now over 2,800,
it looks so easy doing this!
yours truly at the wettest place in the world Chennapunji, trouble is when we were there it was as dry as a bone! but to give you an example of how wet it can be, receives an annual rainfall of 1270 cms, once it rained 2290 cms in one season!
myself and Anil, a great trip with loads of pictures and the good news the area is safe for dolphins.
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