Ganges River Dolphin

Platanista gangetica

The Ganges river dolphin (Platanista gangetica) is a freshwater dolphin of the Ganges, Brahmaputra, and connected river systems of South Asia. It has a long narrow beak, small eyes, flexible neck, and a sideways swimming style sometimes seen when it searches along riverbeds. Vision is limited in turbid water, so echolocation is central to finding fish and shrimp. Its river habitat changes with monsoon flow, sediment, channels, and human use of water.

Care for this dolphin is not a private or zoo routine; the practical work is river conservation, rescue, and conflict reduction. Managers monitor water depth, barrages, boat traffic, fishing gear, pollution, sand mining, and dry-season fragmentation that can trap animals in shrinking channels. Rescue teams may relocate stranded dolphins only under expert authority because handling is risky and stressful. Community reporting, safer fishing practices, and protected river stretches matter because the same waterways support people, boats, irrigation, fish, and dolphins at once.