Environmental Impact to the Conservation of the Indus River Dolphin (Platanista minor)

Abstract

The Indus river Dolphin is one of the world`s most endanger cetaceans with a total population of just a few hundreds individuals. Ecological interest in the species was aroused in the 1970`s and inter mittend but largely un- coordinated monitoring of a number as continued never since. Barrages cutting the river in to biologically up stream combine with the pressure associated with a growing population in a Third World country pollution such as fragmentation and literacy combine to put the species under threat. The establishment of a dolphin Reserve between the Guddu and Sukkur barrages in Sindh has made a positive contribution to dolphin conservation but a more proper approach is advocated here. Accepting that little can be done to improve the natural impacts, approaches reducing the pollution load of the river water, particularly in low flows, by natural filtration are advocated