Two stranded blind dolphins rescued in Sukkur

SUKKUR: Two blind Indus dolphins were rescued after being found stranded at a lake in Sukkur district, ARY News reported on Sunday.

“Two rare blind Indus Dolphins were rescued from Sarfo Pattan area and were released in Indus River,” Sindh Wildlife Department said in a statement.

“The rescuers required two days to safely rescue the stranded rare dolphins from the lake”, officials of Sindh Wildlife Department, Sukkur said.

In a shocking incident in Pano Akil in Sukkur, people had killed a blind dolphin viciously in August this year.

In January this year, local people also found two dead dolphins in a canal in Khanpur Mahar in Ghotki district.

The carcasses of the two dead mammals were recovered by local villagers from the canal. The dolphins could likely be stranded during the closure period of Sukkur barrage in January to the canal.

It is pertinent to mention here that the Indus River dolphin has been marked as endangered by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

These mammals have to adapt to life in the muddy river water, and are believed since then to be functionally blind. Without eyes, the rare specie of blind dolphins rely on echolocation to communicate, navigate, and hunt prey including catfish, prawns, and carp.

The dolphin species remain in the lower downstream reaches of the Indus River.

Indus River Dolphins are grey-brown in colour, sometimes with a pinkish belly, and measure between 1.5 metres and 2.5 metres in length, weighing a maximum of 90 kg.