The dolphin population along Odisha’s coast and in its water bodies has increased but the number of Irrawaddy dolphins in Chilika lake has fallen.
Months after undertaking a census in different water bodies and off the coast of Odisha, the Principal Chief Conservator Forest (Wildlife) has provided data, recorded across the State’s Wildlife Divisions, on the number of dolphins, which have overall gone up from 544 in 2021 to 726 in 2022.
The increase in the State’s dolphin population is largely due to high sighting in the Mangrove Wildlife Division of the Rajnagar jurisdiction, where 540 dolphins were enumerated in 2022 compared with 342 in 2021. In Rajnagar, bottlenose dolphins rose from 22 to 135 and humpback dolphins increased from 281 to 332 in one year.
