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Critically endangered Yangtze finless porpoise return to lost lake stretches after sand mining ban: Report

  • January 19, 2023
  • Posted by: OptimizeIAS Team
  • Category: DPN Topics
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Critically endangered Yangtze finless porpoise return to lost lake stretches after sand mining ban: Report

Subject :Environment

Section: Species in News

Context:

  • Checking sand mining can help the population of the critically endangered Yangtze finless porpoise to rebound, scientists found.

About the Yangtze finless porpoise:

  • It belongs to the group of animals which also includes dolphins and whales.
  • It is a species of toothless whale.
  • It is endemic to the Yangtze River in China, making it the country’s only known freshwater cetacean following the possible extinction of the baiji (Lipotes vexillifer).
  • It is also the only freshwater porpoise in the world and breeds just once in 18 months.
  • It is the most critically endangered of its taxonomic group and the species has an 86 per cent chance of becoming extinct in the next century.
  • Earlier, the Yangtze river dolphin has declared extinct.
  • Threats include Overfishing, increased shipping traffic and noise pollution.

Sand mining and biodiversity loss:

  • The rampant sand mining around Dongting lake (which connects to the Yangtze river, China) led to the rapid decline of the Yangtze finless porpoise.
  • Though the population has risen after the ban on sand mining was imposed in 2017.
  • Sand mining, which has tripled in the last two decades, is an emerging concern for global biodiversity. “Over 50 billion tonnes of sand is mined every year.”
  • Higher urbanisation has made sand the second-most extracted natural resource in the world after water.
  • Sand mining is most rampant in Asia, Africa and Latin America.
Critically endangered Yangtze finless porpoise return to lost lake stretches after sand mining ban: Report Environment

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