Sunny Sebastian Endangered Gangetic River Dolphins can be sighted in the river in Dholpur district of Rajasthan A rare sighting of a Gangetic river dolphin in the Chambal river. JAIPUR: Want to have the pleasure of watching the critically endangered Gangetic river dolphins in Rajasthan, the place you normally won't associate with water species? Take a holiday and go to Dholpur, a place otherwise known to the outside world for all wrong reasons including the dreaded dacoits. The sightings of Ganges River Dolphin, one of the world's most threatened mammals, are good from the banks of the Chambal. Braving the badlands and the ravines of Rajasthan's eastern district could be worth the trouble considering that the Gangetic dolphin (referred to as "Susu' in some parts of the country), primarily found in the Ganga and Brahmaputra rivers and their tributaries, is disappearing fast. The cetacean, one of the world's oldest creatures -- it has survived for the past hundred million years -- has disappeared from many of its original habitats during the past hundred years. It is feared that only 4,000 to 5,000 of them may be left. Seeing them is believing as the nature photographer Ravindra Singh Tomar could click a few of them this year in March-April during the Dholpur Festival organised by the district administration. Mr. Tomar, who spotted them in the Chambal for the third time could take a few rare photographs. "In the first place, you require keen observation to spot the dolphins. Photographing them is a challenge as you have to do it when they come to the surface of the water for a few seconds,' Mr. Tomar said narrating his experience. "I photographed from the banks of the river near the Chambal bridge. If there is boating facility tourists also can sight them,' Mr. Tomar said. The river at Dholpur forms part of the National Chambal Sanctuary but sightings are rare in other places along the river including near Kota town due to the presence of dams. Altogether some 50 dams are posing a serious threat to the Gangetic River Dolphin it its river habitats spread over Bangladesh, India, Nepal and Pakistan. "Hardly anyone knows about their presence in this area. I myself had only seen the pictures of dolphin carcasses in the past,' concedes Dholpur Collector Ashutosh T. Pendedekar, who is trying to make his much-maligned district a tourist destination. "The fresh water dolphins are fighting what is apparently a losing battle. The immediate danger for them in the Chambal sanctuary is the decrease in the depth of the river and appearance of sand bars dividing the river course into smaller segments,' said Rakesh Vyas of the Kota-based Hadauti Natural History Society. The Ganges dolphins -- long-beaked, stocky, with rounded belly and large flippers; their eyes lack lens and hence they are at times referred to as blind dolphin; they weigh around 90 kg and their adult females can be identified from their longer beaks, curved upward -- are threatened after the increased human use of the river systems, enlargement of fishing nets and the growing demand for their oil and meat as an aphrodisiac and bait for cat fish. "The Ganga and the Brahmaputra river systems together may have a population of 1,500 to 2,000 dolphins now. The Chambal population, estimated to be 88, is mostly found between Banbara and Pachnada,' observe S.K. Behera of WWF-India and R.K. Sharma of the Madhya Pradesh Forest Department, who carried out a recent study on the status of Ganges River Dolphins for WWF-India. Dolphin sighting is a good omen -- and more for the environment and the river. "The presence of dolphin in a river system suggests a healthy eco system. Since dolphin is the apex of the aquatic food chain its presence in adequate numbers symbolises greater bio-diversity in the river system,' observe Dr. Behera, who coordinated the study in Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan. Now we know the Chambal river deserves a much better image!