patna in a major boost to the efforts to save the endangered gangetic dolphins in bhagalpur region a latest study has shown that their numbers are increasing indicating a marked improvement in the quality of river wateraccording to the latest survey conducted by the wildlife conservation trust wct between january and june this year the number of dolphins in the vikramshila gangetic dolphin sanctuary has increased from 188 to 208 in 2018 this number was just 171 the vikramshila sanctuary in bhagalpur district is the only sanctuary of its kind in india stretching for 50km along the gangesa senior forest official of bhagalpur division bharat chintapalli told this newspaper that the number of dolphins emerging at the rivers surface has increased considerably in recent times and it is certainly a positive development in the field of dolphin conservation the increasing number of dolphins in the sanctuary signifies that they have been breeding safely and their habitat is safe he saidthe increase in the population of dolphins is attributed to the recent conservation efforts made by the forest department the department officials have reportedly seized 30 quintal nets in the last one year and deployed security staff for the protection of dolphins in the sanctuary during the monsoon this year dolphins reportedly became more visible in the sanctuary due to the minimum human activity in the riverindias dolphin man and environmentalist ravindra kumar sinha who is currently the vicechancellor of shri mata vaishno devi university jammu said the increase in the number of dolphins was a healthy sign dolphins presence is a sign of a healthy river ecosystem dolphins prefer water that is at least fivefeet to eightfeet deep they are usually found in turbulent waters where there are enough fish for them to feed on he saidgangetic dolphins live in a zone where there is little or no current which helps them save energy if they sense danger they can dive into deep waters the dolphins swim from the nocurrent zone to the edges to hunt for fish and return safely he saidsinha observed that the habitat of the endangered gangetic dolphins had been changing due to climate change threatening their survival he said that several habitats of the ganges river dolphins had been reduced in recent decades and many more would follow in the coming years due to climate changethe ganges river dolphin is the national aquatic animal of india but it is frequently preyed upon by poachers their carcasses are regularly found on the banks of riversganges river dolphins are listed in the schedule i of the indian wildlife protection act and have been declared an endangered species by the international union for conservation of nature iucnthey belong to one of the four species of freshwater dolphins in the world the other three are found in the yangtze river in china the indus river in pakistan and the amazon river in south america