New Delhi: The Centre has stumbled upon a few encouraging nuggets while studying the Ganga, with the discovery of a flourishing aquatic life in a single stretch of the river, considered one of the most polluted in the world.
After 70 years, the Dehradun-based Wildlife Institute of India (WII), which is enumerating aquatic life in the Ganga for the government, reported spotting Siebold’s smooth scaled water snake, a mildly venomous serpent which grows to a maximum length of 76 cm, in the first leg of the survey of the river’s mainstream from Bijnor to Kanpur in Uttar Pradesh.
It also sighted 50 Gangetic dolphins, an endangered species, at 28 spots, up from 42 spotted in a 2015 study by the UP government, in the 570-km long river stretch, a union water resources ministry sources said.
Scientists attached to the WII have also discovered new breeding spots of the Indian Skimmer bird, protected under Indian Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972, in the river basin.
Usually, the Indian Skimmer is found in the National Chambal Gharial Wildlife Sanctuary, located at the tripoint of Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh, and in the Mahanadi river basin.
The study, carried out by a nine-member team, including four biologists, also found 27 gharials, released by the Uttar Pradesh government in the past, in the Ganga, particularly in the Hastinapur Wildlife Sanctuary.
To a question relating to the presence of the Gangetic dolphins, one of four kinds of freshwater dolphins in the world, in the particular stretch, Mr Hussain said the number could be considered “big”, given that the long-snouted mammal breeds only once in three or four years on an average.
