{"id":631,"date":"2023-06-13T13:31:49","date_gmt":"2023-06-13T08:01:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lotusarise.com\/qna\/?p=631"},"modified":"2024-04-03T07:07:08","modified_gmt":"2024-04-03T01:37:08","slug":"q-other-than-poaching-what-are-the-possible-reasons-for-the-decline-in-the-population-of-ganges-river-dolphins","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lotusarise.com\/qna\/upsc\/q-other-than-poaching-what-are-the-possible-reasons-for-the-decline-in-the-population-of-ganges-river-dolphins","title":{"rendered":"Q.\u00a0Other than poaching, what are the possible reasons for the decline in the population of Ganges River Dolphins?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<ol class=\"wp-block-list\" type=\"1\">\n<li>Construction of dams and barrages on rivers<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Increase in the&nbsp;<strong>population of crocodiles<\/strong>&nbsp;in rivers<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Getting trapped in fishing nets accidentally<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>U se of synthetic fertilizers and other agricultural chemicals in crop-fields in the vicinity of rivers<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Select the correct answer using the code given below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"mcq wp-block-list\">\n<li>1 and 2 only<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>2 and 3 only<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>1, 3 and 4 only<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>1, 2, 3 and 4<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Answer: (c) 1, 3 and 4 only<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<h6 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Ganges River Dolphins<\/strong><\/h6>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Scientific Name:<\/strong>&nbsp;<em>Platanista gangetica<\/em><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/lotusarise.com\/quiz\/upsc-prelims-research-environment-2015\/\">Ganges River Dolphin<\/a>&nbsp;was&nbsp;<strong>officially discovered in 1801.<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Ganges river dolphins live in the\u00a0<strong>Ganges-Brahmaputra-Meghna<\/strong>\u00a0and\u00a0<strong>Karnaphuli-Sangu river<\/strong>\u00a0systems of\u00a0<strong>Nepal, India, and Bangladesh.<\/strong>\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The Ganges river dolphin can&nbsp;<strong>only live in freshwater<\/strong>&nbsp;and is essentially blind.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>They hunt by emitting ultrasonic sounds, which bounces off of fish and other prey, enabling them to \u201csee\u201d an image in their mind. They are also called&nbsp;<em>\u2018susu\u2019.<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Population of Gangetic river Dolphin is&nbsp;<strong>1200-1800.<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Significance:<\/strong>\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>It is a&nbsp;<strong>reliable indicator<\/strong>&nbsp;of the&nbsp;<strong>health of<\/strong>&nbsp;the entire&nbsp;<strong>river ecosystem.<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>It was recognised as the&nbsp;<strong>National Aquatic Animal<\/strong>&nbsp;in 2009, by the Government of India.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Threats:<\/strong>\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Bycatch:<\/strong>&nbsp;These dolphins and people both favor areas of the river where fish are plentiful and the water current is slower. This has led to fewer fish for people and more dolphins dying as a result of accidentally being caught in fishing nets, also known as bycatch.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Pollution:<\/strong>&nbsp;Industrial, agricultural, and human pollution is another serious cause of habitat degradation.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Dams:<\/strong>\u00a0Construction of dams and other irrigation-related projects make them susceptible to inbreeding and more vulnerable to other threats because they cannot move to new areas.\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Dolphins below a dam are threatened by heavy pollution, increased fishing activities and vessel traffic. They also have less food because dams disturb the migration, breeding cycles and habitat of fish and other prey.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Conservation Status:<\/strong>\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/lotusarise.com\/wildlife-protection-act-1972-upsc\/\">Indian Wildlife (Protection), Act 1972<\/a>: Schedule I.<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>International Union for the Conservation of Nature&nbsp;(IUCN): Endangered.<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species&nbsp;(CITES): Appendix I&nbsp;<\/strong>(most endangered).<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Convention on Migratory Species&nbsp;(CMS): Appendix II<\/strong>&nbsp;(migratory species that need conservation and management or would significantly benefit from international co-operation).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Steps Taken:<\/strong>\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Project Dolphin:<\/strong>&nbsp;The Prime Minister announced the government\u2019s plan to launch a Project Dolphin in his Independence Day Speech 2020. It will be on the lines of&nbsp;<strong><a href=\"https:\/\/lotusarise.com\/tiger-reserves-in-india-upsc\/\">Project Tiger<\/a><\/strong>, which has helped increase the tiger population.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Dolphin Sanctuary: Vikramshila Ganges Dolphin Sanctuary<\/strong>&nbsp;has been established in<strong>&nbsp;Bihar.<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Conservation Plan:<\/strong>&nbsp;The Conservation Action Plan for the Ganges River Dolphin 2010-2020, which \u201cidentified threats to Gangetic Dolphins and impact of river traffic, irrigation canals and depletion of prey-base on Dolphins populations\u201d.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>National Ganga River Dolphin Day:<\/strong>&nbsp;The&nbsp;<strong>National Mission for Clean&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/lotusarise.com\/ganga-river-system-upsc\/\">Ganga<\/a><\/strong>&nbsp;celebrates&nbsp;<strong>5<sup>th<\/sup>&nbsp;October<\/strong>&nbsp;as National Ganga River Dolphin Day.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n<style>.wp-block-kadence-spacer.kt-block-spacer-_df179b-2c .kt-block-spacer{height:40px;}.wp-block-kadence-spacer.kt-block-spacer-_df179b-2c .kt-divider{border-top-width:2px;border-top-color:#eee;width:100%;border-top-style:solid;}<\/style>\n<div class=\"wp-block-kadence-spacer aligncenter kt-block-spacer-_df179b-2c\"><div class=\"kt-block-spacer kt-block-spacer-halign-center\"><hr class=\"kt-divider\"\/><\/div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Select the correct answer using the code given below. Answer: (c) 1, 3 and 4 only Ganges River Dolphins<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_kad_blocks_custom_css":"","_kad_blocks_head_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_body_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_footer_custom_js":"","_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_kad_post_classname":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1,3],"tags":[36],"years":[59],"class_list":["post-631","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-upsc","category-prelims","tag-environment","years-59"],"acf":[],"taxonomy_info":{"category":[{"value":1,"label":"UPSC"},{"value":3,"label":"Prelims"}],"post_tag":[{"value":36,"label":"Environment"}],"years":[{"value":59,"label":"2014"}]},"featured_image_src_large":false,"author_info":{"display_name":"LotusArise","author_link":"https:\/\/lotusarise.com\/qna\/author\/team-lotusarise"},"comment_info":0,"category_info":[{"term_id":1,"name":"UPSC","slug":"upsc","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":1,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":0,"count":1269,"filter":"raw","cat_ID":1,"category_count":1269,"category_description":"","cat_name":"UPSC","category_nicename":"upsc","category_parent":0},{"term_id":3,"name":"Prelims","slug":"prelims","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":3,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":1,"count":1251,"filter":"raw","cat_ID":3,"category_count":1251,"category_description":"","cat_name":"Prelims","category_nicename":"prelims","category_parent":1}],"tag_info":[{"term_id":36,"name":"Environment","slug":"environment","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":36,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":193,"filter":"raw"}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lotusarise.com\/qna\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/631","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lotusarise.com\/qna\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lotusarise.com\/qna\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lotusarise.com\/qna\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lotusarise.com\/qna\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=631"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/lotusarise.com\/qna\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/631\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":667,"href":"https:\/\/lotusarise.com\/qna\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/631\/revisions\/667"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lotusarise.com\/qna\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=631"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lotusarise.com\/qna\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=631"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lotusarise.com\/qna\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=631"},{"taxonomy":"years","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lotusarise.com\/qna\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/years?post=631"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}