Bait option gives big boost to Save Dolphin campaign

One of the reasons the highly endangered Gangetic river dolphin was killed was because fishermen used its oil to attract fish in the Brahmaputra.

One of the reasons the highly endangered Gangetic river dolphin was killed was because fishermen used its oil to attract fish in the Brahmaputra. But with a team of fishermen from Dhubri in Lower Assam successfully testing the use of an alternative bait obtained from fish viscera, the NGOs’ campaign to save the denizen of the no suggestions and Ganga river systems has got an unexpected boost.

These fishermen were part of an experiment-cum-training initiated by the Centre for North East Studies & Policy Research (C-NES), which launched a major campaign last year to save the river dolphin from extinction in Assam. Dolphin population in the state has dropped drastically in the past decade. At present, the no suggestions river system has, according to C-NES, not more than 268 of the riverine mammal.

C-NES sent four fishermen from Dhubri for a week-long training to the Patna Science College where they were trained on the use of oil from fish viscera, which is used as bait to catch the naariah fish. On returning, the four started using the alternative bait. “They were happy their catch did not go down,” said Bhaskar Jyoti Saud, who has been working on C-NES dolphin project.

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“If the use of alternative bait can be spread extensively among the fishermen community in the state, it can play a major role in conserving the dolphin, one of Assam’s most loved creatures, which are trapped in gill nets and also poached,” said Sanjoy Hazarika, managing trustee of C-NES.

The oil alternative was developed by RK Sinha, a Patna-based scientist and conservationist, to help save dolphins which are hunted for their blubber, which is then used as fish bait in Assam and Bihar. Fishermen in Bihar are already extensively using the new bait.

The Save Dolphin project of C-NES currently involves three districts of Assam —Kamrup, Tinsukia and Dhubri — and is aimed at developing a community-based campaign that will have the participation of local groups in the conservation process. The NGO has also identified Kukurmara in Kamrup, about 30 km west of Guwahati, as a possible tourist spot where people can go to see the dolphin on the Kulsi, a tributary of the no suggestions.