Headlines
  • False or misleading informations are spread by organizations posing as legitimate media outlets in an attempt to twist public opinion in favor of a certain ideology.
  • On social media,watch out for fake messages,pictures,Videos and news.
  • Always Check Independent Fact Checking Sites if You Have Some Doubts About the Authenticity of Any Information or Picture or video.
  • Check Google Images for AuthThe Google Reverse Images search can helps you.
  • It Would Be Better to Ignore Social Media Messages that are forwarded from Unknown or Little-Known Sources.
  • If a fake message asks you to share something, you can quickly recognize it as fake messege.
  • It is a heinous crime and punishable offence to post obscene, morphed images of women on social media networks, sometimes even in pornographic websites, as retaliation.
  • Deepfakes use artificial intelligence (AI)-driven deep learning software to manipulate preexisting photographs, videos, or audio recordings of a person to create new, fake images, videos, and audio recordings.
  • AI technology has the ability to manipulate media and swap out a genuine person's voice and likeness for similar counter parts.
  • Deepfake creators use this fake substance to spread misinformation and other illegal activities.Deepfakes are frequently used on social networking sites to elicit heated responses or defame opponents.
  • One can identify AI created fake videos by identifying abnormal eye movement, Unnatural facial expressions, a lack of feeling, awkward-looking hand,body or posture,unnatural physical movement or form, unnatural coloring, Unreal-looking hair,teeth that don't appear natural, Blurring, inconsistent audio or noise, images that appear unnatural when slowed down, differences between hashtags blockchain-based digital fingerprints, reverse image searches.
  • Look for details,like stange background,orientation of teeth,handsclothing,asymmetrical facial features,use reverse image search tools.

More Details

Irrawaddy Dolphin Deaths on Bangladesh’s Coast Worry Environmentalists, Authorities

Kamran Reza Chowdhury/Dhaka,Bangladesh

Growing up, Nuru Majhi and his friends used to see dolphins jumping in Bangladesh’s southern coastal waters.

“But now we see a lot less dolphins,” the 58-year-old fisherman from Patuakhali district told BenarNews. “The main cause of death is due to fishing nets. The number of fishermen has increased 10 times compared to 30 years ago.”

The deaths of two Irrawaddy dolphins earlier this month near Kuakata beach where Majhi fishes highlight the threat faced by the aquatic mammals in Bangladesh, which hosts the world’s largest population of the species, authorities and fishermen said.

Bangladesh Forest Department officials recovered the remains of the dolphins on May 3 and 14, bringing the tally this year to at least eight. All were found in the same Kuakata beach area in Patuakhali, about 294 km (183 miles) south of Dhaka.

Meanwhile on May 22, a local Bangladesh media report said that a pregnant female Irrawaddy dolphin had 9died after being hit by a trolling net. The report said the dolphin was found floating at the mouth of Andharmanik River in Patuakhali district that morning.

The carcass of an Irrawaddy dolphin lies on the Kuakata beach in Bangladesh’s Patuakhali district, May 14, 2022.Courtesy Dolphin Conservation Committee of Kuakata, Bangladesh Via BenarNews

The trend worries government authorities, environmentalists and fishermen. Similar concerns have been raised as the Irrawaddy population has plummeted on the Mekong River near Cambodia’s border with Laos.

“This is really a matter of concern for us that the Irrawaddy dolphins are dying,” Abdullah Al Mamun, the division forest officer in Patuakhali district, told BenarNews.

Forest officials were examining the causes of the latest dolphin deaths, he said. 

The Irrawaddy dolphin, which is distinct for its roundish head and lack of beak, is found in freshwater along with brackish shallow coastal waters in South and Southeast Asia, from Bangladesh to Mekong region and the Philippines.

The name comes from the Irrawaddy River in Myanmar where the first specimens were described, according to riverdolphins.org, a website on dolphin conservation and management.

Roman Imtiaz Tushar, a Kuakata wildlife activist, said 24 Irrawaddy dolphins were found dead in 2021, 18 in 2020 and 12 in 2019.

Majhi, which means “boatman” in Bengali, said no fisherman intentionally kills a dolphin.

“Every dolphin’s death makes fishermen very sorry,” he said. “Dolphins are a very emotional type of animal. They move in groups. When one is entangled in a net, others come around the trapped dolphin.” 

Courtesy International Whaling Commission Via BeqnarNews

Trapped in nets

Sharif Uddin, a fisheries department official, said Kuakata and other adjacent coastal areas are rich in resources.

“The number of fishermen in this area has increased over the years. So more dolphins are getting trapped in the fishing nets,” said Uddin, chief scientific officer for the marine fisheries survey management.

In 2019, Dhaka adopted a Dolphin Conservation Action Plan to save the country’s population of Irrawaddy, a protected species, along with the Ganges River dolphin.

The plan authorizes the fisheries department to work with fishermen, while the main task of saving and conserving the dolphins goes to the forest department.

“In line with the action plan, we have started awareness campaigns among the coastal fishermen so they can immediately release the dolphins, if possible,” Uddin said.

“So, if we can make them more sensitive, there is a possibility that some of the dolphins trapped in the nets could be saved,” he said.

But locals said they do not always know whether a large fish or a dolphin has been entangled in their long nets and can rescue only those caught close to them.

“Once caught, the dolphins die in a maximum of 10 minutes,” Majhi, the fisherman, said. 

Dolphins are mammals and need to take oxygen from the air at intervals of 10 minutes or less, according to M.A. Aziz, a zoology professor at Jahangirnagar University in Dhaka. “They cannot take oxygen from the water like fish.”

“Some fishermen use very thin and transparent nets which the dolphins cannot always detect. When they run after fish, they cannot detect the presence of the thin fishing net and get entangled with it,” he told BenarNews. “As a result, they suffocate and die underwater in a short time.” 

Bangladesh’s coasts and the coastal rivers host about 80 percent of the world’s Irrawaddy dolphins, Aziz said.

Globally, the Irrawaddy population is about 7,000, according to experts and international studies. Figures for Bangladesh range from 5,800 to 6,000, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and the World Conservation Society.

The Irrawaddy dolphins are classified as “endangered” on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, with some river and coastal subpopulations designated as “critically endangered.”

In February, the last known freshwater Irrawaddy dolphin on a stretch of the Mekong River near Cambodia’s border with Laos died after being snagged in a fishing net, said wildlife officials and villagers from both sides of the frontier. Overall, a few dozen of these dolphins survive in the Lower Mekong region.

The Irrawaddy population along the Mekong has declined from an estimated 200 in 1997 to 89 in 2020, according to riverdolphins.org.

IUCN said the dolphin population level was satisfactory in Bangladesh waters where they are frequently spotted near the Sundarbans, the world’s largest mangrove forest, and the Meghna River estuary near Nijhum Dwip.  

It said the Irrawaddy’s regional habitat was affected by increasing salinity caused by climate change and freshwater withdrawals.

The fresh water flow into the river system that is needed to produce a suitable mixture with salt water to create the proper habitation for dolphins has been reduced, environmentalists said.

The forest department, which investigates each recorded dolphin death, has concluded that in most cases they were entangled in fishing nets or hit by trawlers. 

Tushar, the team leader at the Dolphin Conservation Committee in Kuakata, said the story of Irrawaddy dolphins dying in fishing nets, while “true to a large extent,” is not complete. 

“Fishermen are everywhere along the Bangladesh coast and rivers. Why do we see dead dolphins come to the Kuakata beach year after year? We do not see such frequent deaths of dolphins in other parts of Bangladesh,” Tushar told BenarNews.

“I think the government agencies must investigate seriously to find the true cause of death of the dolphins in Kuakata.”

Subel Rai Bhandari in Bangkok contributed to this report.

Copyright ©2015-2022, BenarNews. Used with the permission of BenarNews.

Related Article

In Post-Hasina Bangladesh,Awami League Faces Uncertain…

With its leaders in jail or fleeing from justice, the party that led Bangladesh to independence and ...
October 29, 2024

In Rare Appeal, Tibetan Calls for…

A Tibetan from Sichuan province has made a rare public appeal on Chinese social media, calling on au ...
October 21, 2024

Real Estate Prices Skyrocket as Yangon…

Myanmar’s civil war is driving up housing demand in Yangon, causing rents to skyrocket as people d ...
October 20, 2024

Young Female Tibetan Cricketer Breaks into…

Jetsun Narbu, 19, aims to join the national team while highlighting her Tibetan heritage. By Dechen ...
October 11, 2024

Bangladesh Finds Infamous ‘Secret’ Detention Center…

A new Bangladesh inquiry commission said Thursday it had found an infamous “secret” detention ce ...
October 5, 2024

Tibetan Monk Jailed for 18 Months…

A Tibetan monk has been sentenced to over 18 months in prison on charges of sharing a speech by Tibe ...
September 25, 2024

Other Article

Video Report

The Lessons of War:Survival Classes Introduced…

In order to educate students lifetime lessons on survival and patriotism, Ukrainian schools have int ...
November 2, 2024
Video Report

Cybercrime in Nigeria:Inside a “hustle kingdom”

In West Africa, particularly in Ghana and Nigeria, there is a rise in informal academies known as "h ...
November 1, 2024
Video Report

Weather Damage and Arson Attacks Are…

Election officials in the Pacific Northwest states of Washington and Oregon, where ballot box arson ...
Pick of the Day

UN Security Council Meets on Threats…

Adedeji Ebo, Director and Deputy to the High Representative of the United Nations Office for Disarma ...
October 31, 2024
Video Report

US Political History:Some of the Most…

The turn up to the 2024 United States presidential election has been full of twists and turns,but be ...
Pick of the Day

UN Security Council Hears Report on…

Marko Đurić, Minister for Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Serbia, addresses the United Nations ...
October 30, 2024

[wp-rss-aggregator feeds="crime-more-world"]
Top