The High Court has directed authorities concerned to take necessary measures to protect and stop killing of dolphins in the Halda River of Chittagong.
The single bench of Justice Obaidul Hassan, one of the three newly-formed HC virtual courts, passed the country’s first virtual court order (for writ) after hearing the matter on Tuesday.
The court also said to inform it about the taken measures within 72 hours.
Barrister Abdul Kaium represented the writ via video conference.
Chief state lawyer Mahbubey Alam and Deputy Attorney General Amit Talukder also joined the video conference to represent the state.
Earlier on Monday, Supreme Court lawyer Barrister Kaium filed the writ petition through the email of the bench of Justice Obidul Hassan.
The writ filed seeking rule asking that why the court should not give the necessary order and inaction of respondents resulting to killing of dolphins at Halda River should not be declared illegal.
Among others, secretary of the Ministry of Fisheries and Livestock and director general of the Department of Environment have been made respondents in the writ.
On May 8, locals allegedly slaughtered a Gangetic Dolphin (Platanista gangetica) in Halda River to death in Raozan upazila of Chittagong.
On March 21, a 6-feet long dolphin with injury marks was found dead at Ajmer Ghat area of Halda River under Raozan upazila in Chittagong.
On December 5 last year, another dead dolphin with injury marks was recovered from Akbaria point of Halda River under Hathazari upazila.
On April 16 last year, a six-month-old dolphin with scars was also found floating at Madunaghat point of the river.
Two types of dolphins are found in Bangladesh- Irrawaddy dolphin (Orcaella brevirostris) and Gangetic dolphin (Platanista gangetica).
The official status of the river dolphins, locally known as Shushuk [Platanista gangetica] is “critically endangered” as per the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List.
The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species is a universally recognized index of the world’s endangered animals.
According to Halda River Research Laboratory, currently the number of river dolphins will not exceed 1,200 across the globe. And among them, some 250 dolphins are found in the Halda River.
