How to safe the Indus dolphin: inspirational trip

I am constantly surprised by how nature never fails to surprise me. After the many travels and adventures that I’ve been lucky enough to experience, here I am, sitting in a small boat on the Indus river in Pakistan with both hands clamped over my mouth in wonder. Because I just saw a very weird river creature with a long beak, and he greeted me. I think.

Crowded house in the Indus

The Indus river dolphin - for that’s what it was – is a mystic animal. Living in murky waters it is not easily observed. But we know it’s struggling. Once found swimming throughout the entire Indus river system spread over Pakistan and India, currently the Indus river dolphin’s home has been reduced to just 1000 km. The positive news is that the population is growing: the latest census in 2017 estimated that there were around 1874 individuals compared to 1100 two decades ago. This is definitely a reason to be optimistic: most other river dolphin populations are declining.
But now it is getting crowded here.

How to safe a river dolphin: by truck?

With my Pakistani colleagues we journey along the river to analyze the situation. The Indus river is not just important to the dolphin: its water is needed to irrigate the fields that feed the nation. The river dolphin’s current home range is split up by three giant barrages, and we do not know if dolphins can easily pass these concrete constructions. Via the barrages, farmers divert river water into artificial canals to water their crops. Unfortunately, this leaves little water in the river during the dry season, causing dolphin stress. Even more importantly: the dolphins – which are blind – accidentally enter the shallow canals and get stranded. Fortunately, a remarkable rescue system is now in place. Involving farmers, WWF and partners, the system successfully rescued 13 dolphins in 2019, with experts removing the trapped dolphins and transporting them back to the main river in an open truck that has been converted into a kind of ‘dolphin ambulance’. Do you get the picture?

Action!

We discuss the situation and decide action is needed. We will develop a way to help river dolphins re-populate other parts of the Indus river, so they can rule over more of their ancient home once again – and help restore the health of the ecosystem by returning to their position as the river’s top predator.
This is easier decided than done. It requires research, like analyses of water quality and fish availability in the potential new locations; it requires safe ways to transport the dolphins over longer distances and to monitor their movements after translocation. This will require time and funds. And the support of the government, international experts and researchers. But we can do it.

Mobilizing political care

After this lovely experience, I will be heading to India to participate in the meeting of the Convention on Migratory Species. During this congress, we will discuss (and hopefully approve!) the first international agreements for river dolphin protection. As the leader of WWF’s River Dolphins initiative, I’m happy about this important step and grateful to the Indian government for showing that it cares about the world’s river dolphins. I feel this could be a critical starting point to build a global river dolphin movement that will help secure a political pledge by the 15 countries that host river dolphins in their rivers. To safeguard these incredible animals. To show they care.