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Our National River Ganga pp 121–141Cite as

Indicator Species (Gharial and Dolphin) of Riverine Ecosystem: An Exploratory of River Ganga

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Abstract

The Ganga River sustains diverse group of flora and fauna including the endangered Ganges river dolphin (Platanista gangetica gangetica) and critically endangered gharial (Gavialis gangeticus). Because, of the highest productivity and most populous regions on earth there is a strong demand and competition for natural resources, which threatened the survival of indicator species such as gharial and dolphin in river Ganga. There are several riverine indicator species which are threatened by human activities in the Ganga basin. However, the Ganges river dolphin and gharial are reliable indicator species to understand the health of the Ganga river ecosystem. Studying indicator species could create the basis for a sustained research programme to see how the changes of the said species can be related to the health of the river system. This would help to implement various programme for restoration of the river system. Human perturbations and anthropogenic disturbances have led to drastic declines in dolphin and gharial populations over much of their distribution ranges during the last several decades.

However, due to active involvement of WWF-India in dolphin conservation in certain areas the recent survey reported interesting trends in terms of a stable Dolphin population. Stretches that reported stable Dolphin population were areas where there had been some interventions taken by local communities, forest departments, and other non government organizations.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. River Basins and Biodiversity, WWF-India, Secretariat, 172-Lodhi Estate, New Delhi, 110003, India

    Sandeep Kumar Behera, Hari Singh & Viveksheel Sagar

Authors
  1. Sandeep Kumar Behera
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  2. Hari Singh
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  3. Viveksheel Sagar
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Correspondence to Sandeep Kumar Behera .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, India

    Rashmi Sanghi

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Behera, S.K., Singh, H., Sagar, V. (2014). Indicator Species (Gharial and Dolphin) of Riverine Ecosystem: An Exploratory of River Ganga. In: Sanghi, R. (eds) Our National River Ganga. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-00530-0_4

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