Two booked for Indus dolphin’s killing

Slain mammal was pregnant, caught in an illegally fixed fishing net: SWD officials

KARACHI:

Two persons have been booked for the recent killing of a pregnant Indus dolphin in the limits of Pano Aqil Police Station in Sukkur district, confirmed Sindh wildlife department officials on Tuesday.

"The blind dolphin was pregnant," said Sukkur Deputy Conservator Adnan Hamid Khan, speaking to The Express Tribune. It was headed from Punjab when fishermen caught it in a fixed fishing net in Korai Minor water canal on August 26. After killing the endangered mammal they threw it back in the canal, SWD officials said.

A case was lodged against Mullah Naveed Mirani and Munawar in the first FOR filed by the department this year.

The SWD has sought the assistance of the local police for the arrest of both the suspects but sources within the department said not a single raid has been conducted yet.

In video footages, available with The Express Tribune, dozens of eyewitnesses can be seen laughing as the fishermen catch the rare dolphin. Some referred to it as a 'fish' and scoffed when it was thrown back into the water.

Shaking his head at the crowd's reaction, Khan remarked that the people living on either sides of the Indus River are well aware of the endangered blind dolphins and know of their importance. "It's a killing. We are taking legal action against the persons involved," he stressed.

Khan said that the SWD learnt of the murder through sources after which a rescue team reached the site and retrieved it from a canal. However, the perpetrators had fled by then, he added.

It is a violation of law to fix a fishing net this way, reiterated SWD Chief Conservator Javed Ahmed Mahar. The perpetrators can be sentenced to a prison term upto five years, be slapped with a fine of upto Rs2.5 million or be handed both according to the law, he added, citing the Sindh Wildlife Protection, Conservation and Management Act 2020.

According to a wildlife census carried out by the department in 2019, there are 1,419 blind dolphins in Sukkur and its surrounding areas.

This recent incident was the third reported mortality of the rare species. The first was reported on January 30 near Khanpur Mahar and the second was reported on May 26 in the main river.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 1^st, 2021.