ANNUAL GANGES RIVER DOLPHIN CENSUS

About:

• The annual Ganges river dolphin census is undertaken by World Wide Fund for Nature-India in collaboration with the Uttar Pradesh Forest Department.
  
  
• It will be conducted along 250-km-long riverine stretch of Upper Ganga between Hastinapur Wildlife Sanctuary and Narora Ramsar site.
  
  
• This year the upstream of Bijnor Ganga barrage up to Balawali has also been included. It has added around 30 km to the area being covered by the census which will conclude on October 15.
  
  

Tandem Boat Survey Method:

• Unlike previous years, when direct counting method was used, this year the tandem boat survey method is being used.
  
  
• Here the officials use two inflated boats which move in tandem to count the dolphins. After collating the data, statistical tools are employed to arrive at the final count. In this process, we don’t announce the number of sightings on a daily basis.
  
  
• The method, developed by the renowned river and marine ecologist Gill Braulik, provides a more accurate count of the endangered species. New method is likely to yield more accurate count of the endangered species