October 5 To Be Celebrated As National Dolphin Day From This Year: Environment Minister

This initiative is aimed at “generating awareness” and “community participation” for conservation of the species.

Union Environment Minister Bhupender Yadav (File Photo: ANI)

New Delhi: Union Minister for Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Bhupender Yadav, on Friday announced that October 5 will be celebrated as National Dolphin Day from this year.

This initiative is aimed at “generating awareness” and “community participation” for conservation of the species.

The Union Minister made the announcement on Twitter.

“Happy to inform that the Standing Committee of National Board of Wildlife in its 67th meeting has decided that Oct 5 from this year will be celebrated as National Dolphin Day. Generating awareness & community participation is integral for conservation of this indicator species,” Yadav wrote on the micro-blogging platform.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi had in his Independence Day address earlier on August 15, 2020, announced ‘Project Dolphin’ to conserve both freshwater and marine dolphins.

“One more work we want to promote and that is ‘Project Dolphin’. We will focus on both types of dolphins living in the rivers and in the seas. This will also give a boost to biodiversity and also create employment opportunities,” Prime Minister Modi then said.

“This is also a center of attraction for tourism. So, we are going to move forward in this direction too,” he added.

The Gangetic dolphins, a species of freshwater dolphins, are mostly sighted in long deep river reaches in the states of Assam, Bihar, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal in the country, PTI reported.

Gangetic river dolphins were, as per the news agency, declared national aquatic species in 2010.

There are about 3,700 Gangetic dolphins in the Indian river systems as per the official figures.