A country-made boat ferries men and a car across the Ganga. (PTI)

Patna, Oct. 28: Dolphins have taken over the stretch of the Ganga between Tintaga Ghat and Kahalgaon in Bhagalpur. Legally.

Residents of Kahalgaon area in Bhagalpur are faced with a unique difficulty.

They cannot cross the road between the two ghats as the entire stretch has been declared as a protected area for dolphins.

Not boats are allowed to ferry across passengers.

But the residents are not giving up without a fight.

Institution of Public Character, an organisation of passengers who travel daily between the two ghats, has moved the high court seeking direction to the district administration regarding the issue.

Patna High Court today asked state government counsel Harendra Pratap Singh to seek instruction from the government and file a counter affidavit within three weeks.

A division bench of Chief Justice Rekha M. Doshit and Justice Jyoti Saran passed the order on a public interest litigation filed by Institution of Public Character, seeking direction the authorities to settle the issue.

Rajesh Kumar Pandey, counsel for the petitioner, argued before the bench that boats have been used to ferry passengers across the stretch since time immemorial.

A ban on boats ferrying passengers across the river was a cause of major inconvenience.

The petitioners have requested the court to direct Bhagalpur district magistrate to ensure there are a sufficient number of country boats to ferry passengers across the river.

They also want the Tintanga Ghat ferry to be restarted.

The government took over the ghat in 1998.

Since then the boat service at the ghat has been auctioned to private agencies.

The last time such an auction took place was 2004, when Nau Yatayat Sahkari Swavlambi Sanstha was given the duty to ferry boats across the stretch for three years.

No auction was however conducted in 2007.

The district administration withheld the auction as they were waiting for direction from the state government because of the notification made under the provisions of Wild Life Act, 1972.

A source said the apathetic attitude of the government has forced private boatmen to ferry passengers from Tintanga Ghat to Khahlgaon and back.

However, this is an unauthorised activity.

The endangered Ganga river dolphin (Platanista gangetica gangetica) been declared as India’s national aquatic animal recently. The mammal is found mainly in Ganga and Brhmaputra rivers.

As per the India chapter of World Wide Fund for Nature estimate only about 2,000 of these dolphins remain.