PATNA, INDIA, September 4, 2002: Endangered river dolphins are winning a battle for survival in the only sanctuary of its kind in India along a protected stretch of the Ganges river, wildlife officials say. In the last ten years, dolphin numbers have risen to about 100 from 34 in the 60-kilometer-long Vikramshila Gangetic Dolphin Sanctuary in Bihar, said D. N. Chowdhary, a senior professor at Bihar’s Bhagalpur University. “This sanctuary has at last proved a safe stretch for river dolphins who are fast becoming extinct in other river systems of the world,” Chowdhary said. Of the 40 species of dolphins worldwide, only four are found in fresh water — in China’s Yangtze River, the Amazon river system of South America and the Indus-Ganges river system of South Asia, Chowdhary said. “The Ganges, Brahmaputra and Indus rivers now account for the majority of the river dolphins. That is why this project is very important,” he said. State officials are hoping the dolphin sanctuary, which lies 300 kilometers southeast of Patna, would become a tourist attraction and give locals one more reason to protect the animals.
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