ISLAMABAD: Wildlife authorities in Pakistan’s northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province seek another biosphere reserve for endangered Indus dolphins in Pakistan and have requested their counterparts in Sindh and Punjab provinces to take up the matter with the federal climate change ministry, aiming to boost conservation and scientific assessment of the endangered species.

Biosphere reserves are protected areas that aim to balance the conservation of biodiversity with its sustainable use. They are part of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization’s (UNESCO) Man and Biosphere (MAB) program, which was launched in the 1970s.

Currently, there are 738 biosphere reserves in 134 countries of the world. Four of them are in Pakistan, including two in KP and one each in Punjab and Balochistan provinces of the South Asian country, where authorities say the number of Indus dolphins has grown to 2,100.

There are several other potential sites, including the Indus River and associated riparian areas or wetlands along KP’s Dera Ismail Khan district, which can be declared biosphere reserves for blind Indus dolphins, according to KP Chief Wildlife Conservator Dr. Mohsin Farooque.

“KP Wildlife Department suggests that the area of the proposed Indus Blind Dolphin Biosphere Reserve may be extended to include the habitat falling in Punjab and Sindh provinces to cover the entire range of Dolphin and conserve its habitat along Indus River in Layyah, Rajanpur, DG [Dera Ghazi] Khan, Muzaffargarh etc. in Punjab and Sukkur etc. in Sindh,” Dr. Farooque said in a letter to Punjab and Sindh wildlife authorities.

“This will help conserve the entire ecosystem along Indus River, including associated riparian and wetland areas on both sides of the Indus River.”

The Indus River dolphin (Platanista gangetica minor) and the Ganges River dolphin, also known as “susu,” (Platanista gangetica gangetica) are two river dolphin subspecies that are today the only surviving members of a once primitive and widespread group of archaic cetaceans that swam in the ancient Tethys Sea 50 million years ago, according to experts.

As the sea levels dropped and lands shifted, the freshwater Indus River dolphins were left behind in inland rivers in what is present-day Pakistan. Their survival is crucial to the local eco-structure.

Dr. Farooque said wildlife did not recognize man-made boundaries and fulfilled their requirements and life cycle within their home range irrespective of district, province or country.

“It is, therefore, requested to take necessary measures to take up the case with Ministry of Climate Change and Environmental Coordination, Islamabad for declaration of Indus Biosphere Reserve along Indus in relevant districts of

Punjab and Sindh and promote transboundary management... for effective conservation of the endemic Indus blind dolphin,” he added.