Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC) is conducting the first satellite tagging exercise of Ganges River Dolphin in Assam. Tagging involves attaching a device, marker, or tag to an animal for identification or tracking. The first of the tagging took place in Assam, where a healthy male river dolphin was tagged and released under utmost veterinary care.

It will help in providing information on Ganges River Dolphin habitat needs, movement pattern or home-range information and its distribution range. It will help in understanding their seasonal and migratory patterns, range, distribution, and habitat utilization, particularly in fragmented or disturbed river systems.

About the Tagging initiative

Objective: It will help in understanding their migratory patterns, range, distribution, and habitat utilization, particularly in fragmented river systems.

Conducted by: Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC) and implemented by the Wildlife Institute of India (WII) in collaboration with the Assam Forest Department and NGO Aaranyak.

Conducted Under: Project Dolphin

• It is a MoEFCC-funded project launched in 2020 modelled after Project Tiger. It aims at conserving the Ganges River dolphins and the riverine ecosystem

Funded by: National CAMPA Authority.

• National CAMPA Authority, established under the Compensatory Afforestation Fund (CAF) Act, 2016, manages the National Compensatory Afforestation Fund (under the Public Account of India).

About Ganges River dolphin:

It is a freshwater species and one of the few river dolphins found in the world. It serves as an umbrella species for the river system and is India’s National Aquatic Animal

Habitat: It is endemic to the Indian sub-continent and mainly found in the Ganges-Brahmaputra-Meghna and Karnaphuli-Sangu river systems of Nepal, India, and Bangladesh. Approximately 90% of the species’ population at present is residing in India.

Other names: Blind dolphin, Ganges dolphin, Ganges susu, Hihu, Side-swimming dolphin, South Asian River Dolphin, etc.

Appearance: It has a long thin snout, rounded belly, stocky body and large flippers are characteristics of the Ganges River dolphin.

Biological Features: They can only live in freshwater and are essentially blind. They rely on echolocation for its biological needs. They have a highly developed bio-sonar system that facilitates them to hunt for fish even in murky waters. They hunt by emitting ultrasonic sounds, which bounces off of fish and other prey. Being a mammal, they cannot breathe in the water and must surface every 30-120 seconds.

Other Names: Because of the sound it produces when breathing, the animal is popularly referred to as the ‘Susu’ in Assam.

Conservation status:

• IUCN: Endangered
• CITES: Appendix I
• Wildlife (Protection) Act 1972: Listed in Schedule-I