A dead dolphin was recovered from Chattogram’s Halda River, marking the fifth death in 11 months and raising urgent concerns about human threats to this critically endangered population.
A dead dolphin was found floating with the tidal flow in the Halda River in Chattogram on Tuesday, raising fresh concerns over the safety of the critically endangered species in the country’s only natural carp breeding ground.
According to the Halda River Research Centre, this is the fifth dead dolphin recovered from the river in the last 11 months. The most recent previous recovery took place on 16 December last year in the Barighona area of Hathazari.
The dolphin was recovered around 2:00 pm from the Ramdas Munshirhat area of North Madarsha Union in Hathazari Upazila. Personnel from the Halda River unit of the naval police retrieved the carcass and brought it to the riverbank.
The Department of Fisheries and the Halda River Research Centre of Chattogram University conducted an inquest and post-mortem examination to determine the cause of death.
Confirming the recovery, Muhammad Ramzan Ali, sub-inspector of the Halda naval police outpost, told The Business Standard that the dolphin had likely died several days earlier.
“The body had already started decomposing. The skin was swollen but the exact cause of death will be known only after the inquest and post-mortem,” he said.
Rescuers estimated the dolphin’s weight to be between 25 and 28 kilograms with a length of about four and a half feet.
Researchers said a total of 48 dead dolphins have been recovered from the Halda over the past six and a half years. In almost all cases, except one or two, injury marks were found on the bodies, leading to allegations that several dolphins were deliberately killed.
Experts noted that the Halda dolphin is listed as a critically endangered species on the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List. Globally, the population of this species is estimated at around 1,100, of which about 170 were found in the Halda River alone. With 50 deaths recorded in recent years, conservationists warn that the population in the river is under serious threat.
