A video of a group of men in Uttar Pradesh’s Pratapgarh district beating a Gangetic river dolphin to death surfaced on social media on Friday.
An endangered species, the Gangetic River Dolphin is recognized as the National Aquatic Animal.
The accused were arrested after a video of the incident went viral. In the clip, some people were seen beating the river dolphin to death using sticks and axes.
Why would anyone do this to one of the warmest and most compassionate creatures in the world. #DolphinKilling #Pratapgarh pic.twitter.com/FAkMj76xK5
— Shreya Dhoundial (@shreyadhoundial) January 8, 2021
The police are now looking for others involved in killing the animal that was found in the Sharda canal. They have identified one of the arrested youths as Anuj (20). The other two share the same name, Rahul. One of them is 19 years old, while the other one is a year older. All three are residents of the Unchahar area of Rae Bareli district, which shares its border with Pratapgarh.
Nawabganj Station House Officer (SHO) Akhilesh Pratap Singh stated, “On December 31, we got a complaint from the Gram Pradhan of Kotharia village that the carcass of an animal has been found on the embankment of Sharda canal. We rushed to the spot and later officials of the local administration and the forest department also reached there.”
An FIR was lodged against unidentified people under sections 9 and 51 of the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972.