Bangladesh High Court Directives to Protect Dolphins in Halda River
The High Court of Bangladesh has directed to protect the dolphins of the Halda River. The High Court passed the order on Tuesday (May 12, 2020) at noon. What steps have been taken to prevent Halda pollution in addition to issuing orders; it has been asked to inform within 72 hours.
The Halda River in Chattagram is the only natural fish breeding ground in Bangladesh. This year the egg collectors and the related persons are expecting to collect more eggs than last year.
But hunting dolphins from here is not preferable. Yet those who are immersed in superstition are claimed to have killed these dolphins.
A writ petition was filed last Monday (May 11, 2020) via e-mail seeking directions to take necessary steps to stop the killing of dolphins in the Halda River in Chattagram. Barrister Abdul Qaium Liton submitted the writ petition in the High Court bench of Justice Obaidul Hasan.
Barrister Abdul Qaium Litan said, “I have applied by adding the report published in the media in this regard.”
The petition seeks a ruling on why the inaction of the defendants in stopping the killing of dolphins in the Halda River would not be illegal and why necessary instructions would not be given to stop the killing of dolphins.
The Secretary of Fisheries and Livestock, the Director-General of the Department of Environment, the Chattagram Divisional Director, and the Raozan Upazila Executive Officer of Chattagram have been made defendants in the petition.
The petition also highlighted some of the parts of a report published in an English daily on May 10. It is saying that the lockdown and shutdown have been a blessing for wildlife and river-sea mammals in many parts of the world, but the Gangetic dolphins are not saved from human cruelty.
The mother dolphins are also victims of illegal hunting. On 9 May 2020, a mother dolphin weighing 13 kg was rescued from the river Halda after being hit by an engine boat.
This Gangetic dolphins (Gangetica Platanista) is an endangered species in the rivers of South Asia. The nature conservation group IUCN listed this species as endangered in the Red Book in 2012.
