Patna, Jan. 20: With the Dolphin Conservation Action Plan in place, the Union ministry of environment and forests (MoEF) has set the ball rolling for its implementation. In a bid to increase the dolphin count, a survey will be conducted to identify the stretches of rivers to be declared as protected area.

The ministry recently convened a meeting of its advisory committee to discuss all the aspects of the act released by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in the second meeting of the National Ganga River Basin Authority on November 1 last year. The panel chalked out some guidelines to be followed for implementing the action plan.

India’s Dolphin Man and senior faculty member of the Central University of Bihar R.K. Sinha, the chairman of the advisory committee, was present in the meeting. Its other members, including P.R. Sinha, the director of the Wildlife Institute of India (WII), Dehradun, B.C. Jha, the principal scientist and head (wetland division) of Central Inland Fisheries Research Institute (CIFRI), Barrackpore, and B.B. Burman, the director of National River Conservation Directorate, were there. Amardeep Raju, the deputy director of National River Conservation Directorate and the member secretary of the committee, was also present. S.K. Behra of WWF-India was special invitee to the meeting.

One of the major goals of the conservation plan is to conduct the status survey and threat assessment of dolphins in different states. Based on the status survey, the government would identify the stretches of rivers to be declared as protected area.

“We need to equip agencies concerned of the state governments, local non-government organisations and universities to conduct the status survey. Hence, a decision was taken to organise workshop-cum-training programmes for this purpose,” Sinha told The Telegraph, adding that representatives of fishermen community would also be invited to these programmes.

While one such programme would be organised by WWF-India for the stakeholders of Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh, the Central University of Bihar has been given the task of organising two such programmes. While one programme would be for the stakeholders from Bihar and Jharkhand, the other would be for those from Bengal.

To address the issue of fisheries interface and incidental capture of dolphins in fishing net, the committee asked CIFRI, Barrackpore, to chart out a protocol to be followed by fishermen.

Any decision on the issue of maintenance of critical environmental flow would be taken after getting the report of the consortium of IITs, which has been given the task of charting a management plan for Ganga river basin. The report is likely to come by June this year.

The policy document also talks of community participation and awareness generation to conserve Gangetic dolphins. The advisory committee has asked the Centre for Environment and Education (CEE), Ahmedabad, to make a presentation before it about the works it intended to do to address this aspect. CEE is empanelled with the MoEF for this purpose.

“The meeting proved to be very fruitful and the steps suggested would take care of almost all the aspects related to protection of Gangetic dolphins,” Sinha said.

protection plan

■ Prime Minister Manmohan Singh released Dolphin Conservation Action Plan in the second meeting of the National Ganga River Basin Authority on November 1 last year

■ One of the major goals of Dolphin Conservation Action Plan is to conduct the status survey and threat assessment of dolphins in different states

■ The state governments, NGOs and universities to conduct the status survey

■ Workshop-cum-training programmes will be organised for conducting the survey