Ganges River Dolphin

About this species

Diet

Fish such as carp and mahseer, prawns and other crustaceans; occasionally birds and turtles

Habitat

Large, deep river channels and their confluences

Range

Ganga and Brahmaputra river systems and their tributaries

The Ganges river dolphin looks quite unlike sea dolphins. It has a long, slender beak lined with sharp, pointed teeth, a rounded belly, broad flippers and tail flukes, and only a low, ridge-like dorsal fin. The body is tan, chocolate brown or grey. It cannot see well, so it relies on echolocation from the large rounded melon on its forehead to navigate and find food in the muddy water. Females grow larger than males (Wikipedia, general species account).

Across its range the Ganges river dolphin usually swims alone or in pairs. It rarely leaps clear of the water and is shy of boats, which makes it hard to watch. It finds prawns and fish such as carp and mahseer by sound, and has also been recorded taking birds and turtles. There is no set breeding season: calves are born 8 to 12 months after mating and stay with their mother for about a year (Wikipedia, general species account).

India's first river dolphin survey, carried out under Project Dolphin, covered 8,507 km of 28 rivers in eight states and estimated 6,327 dolphins, most of them in the Ganga and Brahmaputra basins (MoEFCC 2025, as reported by Down To Earth). Uttar Pradesh had the most, with 2,397, followed by Bihar with 2,220, West Bengal with 815 and Assam with 635.

Description: Wildlife of India guide, Wildlife of Everywhere (wildlifeofeverywhere.com); general species information paraphrased from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA)