Sorry Shruti; Namrata is still not very good at blogging and accidentally deleted your comment while fixing the post. :(

Shruti said: I think I'm gonna cry.

:) 'sall good, silly Intern, though my comment doesn't really bear repeating like that. Now it just looks pathetic, and that makes me wanna cry even more. Gah! I could cry India a new river...

Good night, Intern. Good night, all.

Namrata may not be an expert with html yet, but I must disagree with our beloved intern's assessment. I think Namrata is a very good blogger; the following sentences made me swoon, the entire post made me consider reading the report/PDF.

One of the loveliest things I ever saw in India was while crossing a branch of the Ganges in the West Bengal countryside—half a dozen dolphins jumping in coordinated arcs across the river, their tails flipping, backlit by the afternoon sun. I stood up in my amazement, rocking the boat, but I was suddenly unafraid—they were so delightful. I want my grandchildren to see them too.

WWF India features the plight of the dolphins in a video called The Ganga is Dying.

CNN-IBN is running a special series, (also called) The Ganga is Dying (but a different link), on the problems plaguing the river. Flagging off the series is Citizen Journalist, Shweta Bachchan Nanda, who has been involved in protecting the rare river dolphin that is struggling to survive in the waters of the Ganga.

The Indus basin more than 178 million people and draws as much of 80% of it’s water from Himalayan glaciers; the Ganges basin has 200 million people.

if the indus has 178 (pakistan + some more in india and tibet?), i'd hazard to say the ganges has way more than 200 million (the pdf says 'about'). consider

UP - 175 mil
bihar - 80 mil
WB - 80 mill

+ tens of millions in bangladesh

closer to 400 million than 300. at least.

Why is it that we have a problem with dolphins being killed but don't mind other fish being killed. It smacks of hypocrisy its almost like the dolphins are like what the brahmins were, and just because of their so-called adorable face we favour them, and discriminate against the rest.

Why is it that we have a problem with dolphins being killed but don't mind other fish being killed. It smacks of hypocrisy its almost like the dolphins are like what the brahmins were, and just because of their so-called adorable face we favour them, and discriminate against the rest.

Did you know that dolphin is man evolved? I once saw a half-man/half-dolphin in Greece. [link]

well worth highlighting.

what a surprise - not too many comments? shows how important the environment is eh?!

I think it's wrong to preserve the dolphins so tourists can enjoy them while 10s of millions of people in that same valley are living hand to mouth, or at the brink of starvation as soon as the crops fail.

People aren't depleting these rivers because they're "Captain Planet" villains -- they're doing it to feed their families.

I love animals, I find nature beautiful, I'll take a good sunset over a night on the town any day but at the end of the day this people are just trying to stay alive. If India wants to protect her rivers, forests and other great natural areas she needs to start waging a war against large families. Encouraging birth control and teach farming practices that are less dependent on this kind of irrigation.

People aren't depleting these rivers because they're "Captain Planet" villains -- they're doing it to feed their families.

The bigger problem is that all the major rivers in northern India and Pakistan are glacier-fed. That means that WHEN (not IF) the glaciers disappear, the whole region will become a desert. Good bye northern India and Pakistan.

Are folks really that up in arms over dolphins? I would hope that we can agree that the concern over pollution and bio-diversity is more broad than that. That said, dolphins are near the top of the food chain, and they generally offer a good indication of what will happen to humans when pollution levels, etc. are high (although many of us will probably not get stuck in tuna nets in the ocean).

This is a great post, and I'm glad that someone was covering WWD. Another really great/interesting report is the UN's 2006 Human Development Report (all about water and poverty, with a good section on climate change).

Also, something interesting for NYC'ers (maybe it is too late? hopefully not): The Tap Project
In conjunction with UNICEF and WWD, the program allows participating NYC restaurants to let its guests donate a glass of tap water (for $1) to someone in developing/water strapped countries. The logic being, that tap water in the U.S. is much cleaner than unfiltered water and bottled water (which is true, surprisingly).

I am empathetic to the concern that depletion is connected to (poor) people's water needs, but a lot of this is because poor people are not getting water through other channels. A great deal of the river water in N. India/Pakistan is diverted to agriculture, not to cooking/washing/cleaning/drinking. I don't think we should eschew environmentalism or environmental concerns under the guise of poverty advocacy. I think we need to really talk about water access, privatization, and whether or not water should be treated like a market commodity (I would argue no), or whether water needs should be reassessed. Particularly in India, water projects are infamous for diverting scarce resources to wealthier urban elites and away from subsistence farmers, slum communities, poor communities, etc.

I didn't have time to read the report, but looking at the chart in the Exec. Summary, it's interesting that pollution is considered the major threat for only the Yangtze. Most of these rivers are threatened by pollution, and I think that's an especially important point given that so many people depend on them for drinking and agriculture.

Why is it that we have a problem with dolphins being killed but don't mind other fish being killed. It smacks of hypocrisy its almost like the dolphins are like what the brahmins were, and just because of their so-called adorable face we favour them, and discriminate against the rest.

Perhaps we have anthropomorphized them because they are mammals? Save the whales, and all that...

Razib: Thanks, I have updated the post.

Thanks for the link Ziyarat.

Ekalavya, I'm not fond of any fish getting killed. Dolphins are particularly rare and are also a capstone species, see below. They are also more related to us.

Petra---I agree that poverty is a big issue, and normally I emphasize that front and center--see my last (and first) post. But that is almost all we ever hear about South Asian causes. It has an ecology like any other place, and it has a natural wealth like any other place. Desi-americans who would be unembarrassed to work for the preservation of wild species in the United States are afraid to even mention any admiration for such species in the desh. But when they're gone, they're gone. You can mock me for being a tourist, but this blog, and this whole enterprise, is partially about being semi-touristic participants in our ancestral homes. We talk about the beauty and experience of music, film, clothes, sports--just about every aspect of being in and from the desh--without constantly noting the socioeconomic impact of these things. I got some real and wonderful joy out of seeing dolphins that are unique to the desh--more unique than lime pickle or a musical style. It was a meaningful part of my experience of my ancestral district. I'd like my grandchildren to have the same experience. Of course I want to preserve that experience in a way that is respectful of the livelihood and development of the communities that live there. But it's not going to be preserved at all without keeping an eye on it. And once they're gone, they're gone. Further more, I never said anything about Captain Planet villains, and there's no inherent reason for a dichotomy between sustainable development and ecological preservation. Sometimes they can even drive each other, with a little brain power. But not if we don't note the issue.

The value of tracking and focusing on the big mammals, as Camille and Tamasha have hinted at, is partially that they are like the canaries in the coal mine. (It's not such a broken analogy---coal mines are fairly simple environments, so a smaller, more distant organism like a canary is a good measure.) They are capstone species--the top of the food chain, the smaller populations--and so their health gives us some idea about the whole system's health. These particular ones are very unique, some of the rarest and most unique large mammals around--they are a part of South Asia's special ecological character. And yes, they are more empathetic because they are mammals and large--and empathy is important in environmental activism. It's hard get focus and inspiration from plankton and prawns, but if you want healthy dolphins you'll soon learn to want healthy plankton and prawns too. I noted the dolphins because they plucked a deep memory of mine. But the sharks and the fish and frogs and the turtles are all important too.

Sriram, I think pollution is a major concern but not the focus of this report; also the rivers are grouped by #1 concern, but each river is threatened by other problems as well.

Sonia--my hope is that even when people aren't leaving comments they are thinking about it.

DJ DP: Wine, much? ;-)

Anna, Shruti: Aww.

SM I: :-( Sorry!

The number of comments does suggest that this isnt the top priority but at this rate the day is not far when we will be forced to make it one.

petra
I think it's wrong to preserve the dolphins so tourists can enjoy them while 10s of millions of people in that same valley are living hand to mouth, or at the brink of starvation as soon as the crops fail.

Man is just one of the many animals. You never know what the long term consequences of an extinct dolphin population might be on humans. So apart from the short term efforts at poverty removal, forgetting ecological preservation might have much worse consequences.

I recently read the news article at http://www.ibnlive.com/news/30-minutes-the-ganga-is-dying/36796-3-single.html

The situation is so horrendous, so impossibly large, so inexorable, that it depresses me to no end, and I can't see a way to meaningfully impact the situation. Most human beings can't be made to care enough to act for events that will unfold over long time-arcs, except when they are to impact their own family directly. To top that, Indians breed a certain special kind of apathy - borne of poverty, self-preservation pressures, and blissful ignorance - that makes it convenient to focus on TODAY, this very second and not the future, and continue charmed lives in complete denial. That's perhaps a special coping mechanism for knowing that their individual efforts count for the smallest unit of change - each of them(us) constitutes only 1 ppb (part per billion) of the nation's mindshare.

Maybe I'm overdramatizing my desperation, but I don't know how to help - the people chosen by the citizens are purposefully ineffective, and individuals and organizations continue to pollute the Ganga to their full capacity. I haven't read the pdf, but do the very astute readers on this blog have any practical ideas on improving the condition of the river/s?

Namrata is still not very good at blogging and accidentally deleted your comment while fixing the post.

Technically she will get there, but when it comes to the post itself - this is an awesome post. Great topic, wish we read more about such things concerning SA. There is so much variety in the natural ecosystem in SA and a lot of is is in fact getting destroyed but rarely gets mentioned since it's importance gets overshadowed by poverty and development issues. Good job Namrata.

I think it's wrong to preserve the dolphins so tourists can enjoy them while 10s of millions of people in that same valley are living hand to mouth, or at the brink of starvation as soon as the crops fail.

I think Milleu touched upon this briefly. The effect of one species on another in a natural ecosystem is not very well understood in an ecosystem as complex as a big river. Plus, natural ecosystems can (and not necessarily) be highly sensitive to various factors and individual components and any change in one of them can cause an unbalance which may cause the whole ecosystem to change drastically. If you try to make dolphins expendable under the name of poverty, for all you know the whole system may metamorphose into something that wont be able to sustain the same poor people that currently depend on it for most of their survival needs. A look at Darwin's Nightmare may be interesting.

Yes, thats exactly what I had in mind. Thanks for putting it over clearly Ardy.
BTW, the name is milieu not 'milleu'. You dont know what the unintended consequences of a wrong letter can be, can you? ;-)

Milieu - bad typo, sorry :-)

Save the Dolphinss!!!! i actually ran for 20 mins chasing dolphins swimming close to the shore... it was after that time that people from my beach hut started yelling for me to come bak that i had gone WAYY too far... love Dolphins n all sea creatures! save em!!! :D

This is a great post, and I'm glad that someone was covering WWD. Sriram, I think pollution is a major concern but not the focus of this report; also the rivers are grouped by #1 concern, but each river is threatened by other problems as well.

he, i am vimal vishal living in bhagalpur, bihar. i want to about the ganga dolphins ,beacause i live the beside the ganga river and want to protect the animal like dolphins in river ganga. they are really very nice and beautiful and also want to help you as a informer in this area.
so please mail ,who your team work in this field.
vimalbgp06@yahoo.co.in