{"id":97897,"date":"2026-04-12T12:10:21","date_gmt":"2026-04-12T06:40:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/?p=97897"},"modified":"2026-04-12T13:15:36","modified_gmt":"2026-04-12T07:45:36","slug":"indus-river-dolphin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/indus-river-dolphin\/","title":{"rendered":"Indus River Dolphin"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><b>Indus River Dolphin Latest News<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Recently, it was observed that conservation reserves, citizen science, and habitat protection gives the Indus River dolphin a fighting chance in India.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><b>About Indus River Dolphin<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Indus River dolphin (Platanista minor) is one of the <\/span><b>rarest mammals<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><b>Appearance<\/b>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It has the <\/span><b>long, pointed nose<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> characteristic of all river dolphins.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The <\/span><b>teeth are visible in both the upper and lower jaws<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> even when the mouth is closed.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><b>Distribution:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> It presently only occurs in the <\/span><b>Indus River system<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, along with a remnant population in the <\/span><b>Beas River.<\/b><\/li>\n<li><b>Features of Indus River Dolphin<\/b>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is <\/span><b>functionally blind.<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> It has extremely reduced eyes without lenses.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Instead of vision, it relies <\/span><b>entirely on echolocation to navigate,<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> hunt and avoid obstacles in the highly turbid waters.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It has a remarkable trait of <\/span><b>swimming predominantly on its side.<\/b><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This allows it to use its long, sensitive snout to probe the riverbed for prey. Side-swimming is extremely rare among cetaceans and is a signature feature of this species.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It lives largely <\/span><b>solitary or in very small groups<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> (typically mother-calf pairs).<\/span><\/li>\n<li><b>Diet: <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">These <\/span><b>are carnivores<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> (piscivores). They feed on a variety of fish and crustaceans, including prawns, carp, catfish, and gobies.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><b>Threats:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Water pollution, poaching, fragmentation of habitat due to barrages<\/span><\/li>\n<li aria-level=\"1\"><b>Conservation Status<\/b><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"list-style-type: none;\">\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"2\"><b>IUCN Red List: <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Endangered<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"2\"><b>Wildlife Protection Act 1972:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Schedule I<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Source: <\/b><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.downtoearth.org.in\/wildlife-biodiversity\/angel-of-the-beas#google_vignette\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">DTE<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Indus River dolphin is a rare mammal with a long snout and visible teeth, found mainly in the Indus River and a small population in the Beas. Read more about Indus River Dolphin, Appearance, Distribution, Latest News<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":97956,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[6814,21,22,23],"class_list":{"0":"post-97897","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-upsc-prelims-current-affairs","8":"tag-indus-river-dolphin","9":"tag-prelims-pointers","10":"tag-upsc-current-affairs","11":"tag-upsc-prelims-current-affairs","12":"no-featured-image-padding"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97897","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=97897"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97897\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":97955,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97897\/revisions\/97955"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/97956"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=97897"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=97897"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=97897"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}