A villager who was arrested after mishandling an endangered Indus dolphin, leading to its death, has been sent to jail for 14 days.
Officials from the Sindh Wildlife Department’s Sukkur region team presented themselves before an additional sessions judge in Shaheed Benazirabad on Monday, with an FIR against the offender, Khadim Hussain.
The court told the accused to submit a fine of Rs250,000 but upon his inability to furnish the amount, the judge sent him to jail for 14 days.
On Friday afternoon, villagers near a minor distributary of the Sukkur Barrage system’s Rohri Canal found the baby dolphin stranded in the waterway.
Seemingly oblivious to the dolphin’s significance, some of them jumped into the canal and caught it, rather than waiting for rescuers. Dozens of other residents arrived to see the mammal, filming the spectacle.
Video clips going viral on social media showed Hussain dragging the dolphin, slung across his shoulders, out of the water, as the crowd applauded him.
TRIGGER WARNING: A baby dolphin stranded in a water channel of the Rohri canal died after it was mishandled by locals, according to the Sindh Wildlife Department (SWD).TRIGGER WARNING: A baby dolphin stranded in a water channel of the Rohri canal died after it was mishandled by locals, according to the Sindh Wildlife Department (SWD). The baby Indus dolphin that was stranded in a small canal of the Sukkur Barrage system was carried out of the water by excited residents before department officials could arrive at the scene, while the perpetrators refused to put it back in the water despite being informed that it was an offence. The team was later informed that the animal could not survive due to mishandling caused by residents while capturing it. Javed Ahmed Mahar, the provincial conservator of the SWD, told The Express Tribune that a case was being registered against the individuals involved, which would be presented before the local court in Sukkur on Monday. The body of the animal will be transported to their Sukkur habitat center. The Indus dolphin, which is also known as ‘blind dolphin’, is the second most endangered freshwater dolphin specie in the world. Video via Sameer Mandhro (@smendhro/Twitter) For more news and all the latest updates: https://tribune.com.pk/
Posted by Express Tribune Video on Friday, October 30, 2020
The dolphin later died as a result of the mishandling, while Hussain was arrested on Saturday by the Nawabshah police, on the request of SWD officials. A criminal case was filed against him under the Sindh Wildlife Act, 2020.
The dolphin’s body was shifted to the Indus Dolphin Conservation Unit in Sukkur – about 180 kilometres from the site of the incident.
“This is the first time a person accused of killing a dolphin has been sent to jail,” said SWD’s Sukkur deputy conservator Adnan Khan. “There was no pressure on our department to release the culprit, and the provincial government has been supporting our office to take all legal action against the offender.”
According to Khan, most people in the communities along the Sukkur Barrage irrigation system were well aware of the endangered species’ importance. “They usually inform us if they find any stranded dolphins,” he explained. “This is the first time a dolphin has been mishandled like this and killed.”
The endangered species are found in a small stretch of the River Indus, near the Sukkur Barrage. Blind by nature, they often get stranded in shallow waterways branching off from the river. According to the SWD, as many as 18 rescue operations - all of them successful - have been carried out in the area over the last year.
“There is a chance of mortality even during rescue operations,” said SWD conservator Javed Ahmed Mahar. “But our teams know how to handle these dolphins.”
Published in The Express Tribune, November 3rd, 2020.
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