Nature activists have blamed the forest department responsible for the death of a pregnant dolphin at Vikramshila Gangetic Dolphin Sanctuary here on Monday.

Nearly 65km stretch of the Ganga from Sultanganj (west) to Bateshwar Sthan (east) is falling under the sanctuary.

The activists along with the dolphin experts have alleged that rampant use of fishing nets, which are completely banned inside the sanctuary, has started posing a potent threat to this endangered species.

Sunil Kumar Choudhary, coordinator, Vikramshila Education and Bio-diversity Research Centre, Tilka Manjhi Bhagalpur University, has also blamed the extensive using of fishing nets in the areas in this sanctuary where dolphins are found. “Dolphins take oxygen (while breathing) like us from open air and that’s why they appear on surface water. But due to the fishing nets fixed deep inside water, they get trapped and die of breathlessness,” Choudhary added.

He added that since number of fish in the Ganga reduced this year, dolphins have started targeting nets for fish but on many occasions they die after getting trapped.