UNEP Names India's Ganges River Dolphin Programme a World Restoration Flagship

In news

• India's Ganges river dolphin recovery programme was recognised as a UN World Restoration Flagship.
• It features among the 35 flagships in the report "Nature's Comeback: Scaling Ecosystem Restoration for People and Planet".
• The report was released at the CBD COP-17 in Yerevan, Armenia.

About the report

• Published jointly by UNEP, FAO and the CBD Secretariat.
• Released at the midpoint of the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration (2021 to 2030).

Finding	Detail
Area under restoration	About 252 million hectares
Countries	149
Green jobs created	Over 1 million
Weakest areas	Freshwater and marine ecosystems
Finance gap	Investment must rise from about US$64 billion to US$296 billion a year by 2030

• Verdict: restoration is working, but progress is too slow to meet 2030 targets.

What is a World Restoration Flagship

• A large-scale restoration project recognised under the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration.
• Flagships get UN visibility, technical support and access to funding.
• India's Namami Gange was named a flagship earlier, in 2022.

Why India's programme was chosen

• It combines species conservation, river restoration and livelihoods.
• Community participation: fishers, local youth and Ganga Praharis help in monitoring, rescue and eco-tourism.
• It reduces accidental deaths in fishing nets.
• It works with the National Mission for Clean Ganga on river flows and pollution.

About the Ganges river dolphin

Feature	Detail
Scientific name	Platanista gangetica
Local name	Susu
Status	Endangered (IUCN)
Protection	Schedule I, Wild Life (Protection) Act, 1972; CITES Appendix I
National Aquatic Animal	Since 2009
Habitat	Ganga, Brahmaputra and Meghna river systems (India, Nepal, Bangladesh)

• It is almost blind and hunts by echolocation.
• It must surface to breathe every 30 to 120 seconds.
• It is an indicator species. Its presence shows a healthy river.
• It is also Assam's State Aquatic Animal.

Population status

• India's first river dolphin population estimate (released in March 2025) counted 6,327 river dolphins.
• Survey covered 28 rivers in 8 States, over about 8,500 km.
• Highest numbers: Uttar Pradesh (2,397), Bihar (2,220), West Bengal (815) and Assam (635).
• Only 3 Indus river dolphins were found, in the Beas river in Punjab.

Threats

• Barrages and dams fragment habitats and reduce flow.
• Pollution from industry, sewage and agriculture.
• Sand mining and dredging.
• Bycatch in gill nets.
• Noise from boats, which disturbs echolocation.

India's conservation efforts

• Project Dolphin (2020): for river and marine dolphins.
• Comprehensive Action Plan for Dolphin Conservation (2022 to 2047).
• Vikramshila Gangetic Dolphin Sanctuary, Bihar: India's only sanctuary for the species.
• National Dolphin Day: 5 October.

Static connect

• UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration (2021 to 2030): led by UNEP and FAO.
• Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, Target 2: restore 30% of degraded ecosystems by 2030.
• Bonn Challenge: restore 350 million hectares of degraded land by 2030. India pledged 26 million hectares.

Exam relevance: UPSC Prelims and GS-3 (Biodiversity, Conservation); TGPSC, APPSC (Environment).