UPPSC 2022 Prelims GS Paper-I · Question 68 of 150

Correct — A, October 5. India's National Dolphin Day is observed on 5 October, a decision taken by the Standing Committee of the National Board for Wildlife at its 67th meeting and announced by the Union Minister for Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Bhupender Yadav; the observance began in 2022, only weeks before this paper was set on 12 June 2022. The date is not arbitrary — it is the anniversary of 5 October 2009, when the Central Government notified the Gangetic river dolphin as India's National Aquatic Animal. The purpose of the day is public awareness and community participation in conserving that species, Platanista gangetica gangetica, which survives in the Ganga–Brahmaputra–Meghna and Karnaphuli–Sangu river systems of India, Nepal and Bangladesh, is listed in Schedule I of the Wild Life (Protection) Act, 1972, and is classified as Endangered by the IUCN. It is worth keeping this observance separate from the various international dolphin days marked elsewhere in the world on other dates; the question asks specifically about the day announced by India's environment ministry.

• (b)October 28 — Not the date fixed by the ministry. The announcement named 5 October, tying the observance to the anniversary of the Gangetic dolphin's designation as the National Aquatic Animal in 2009. The presence of a second October date in the option list is the standard device of putting a near-miss beside the correct answer, so the month alone cannot carry a candidate through.
• (c)April 15 — Not India's National Dolphin Day. Several countries and campaigning organisations mark dolphin-related observances of their own on spring dates, which is precisely why the anchor for this question has to be the Indian announcement rather than a half-remembered international day. The Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change fixed 5 October.
• (d)July 15 — Has no connection with the dolphin calendar in India. It is included only to spread the options across the year. The single fact the question turns on is the announcement of 5 October as National Dolphin Day, first observed in 2022.

The Ganges river dolphin is one of the world's few surviving freshwater cetaceans and the flagship species of India's river conservation effort. It is functionally blind — the eye lacks a lens — and navigates and hunts entirely by echolocation in the silt-laden water of the northern rivers, surfacing to breathe through a blowhole because, like all cetaceans, it is an air-breathing mammal and not a fish. Its decline has been driven less by deliberate hunting than by the engineering of the rivers themselves: dams and barrages fragment populations and cut off migration, reduced dry-season flow shrinks the deep pools it needs, entanglement in fishing nets kills adults, and agricultural chemicals and industrial effluent poison the prey base. India's response has been layered — Schedule I protection under the Wild Life (Protection) Act, 1972; the notification of the species as the National Aquatic Animal in 2009; the Vikramshila Gangetic Dolphin Sanctuary in Bihar, the only sanctuary in the country dedicated to it; Project Dolphin, announced by the Prime Minister from the Red Fort on 15 August 2020; and now National Dolphin Day on 5 October to carry the message to the public.

This is a date-recall item from the months immediately preceding the exam, and there is no way to reason it out — but there is a way to remember it. The observance was deliberately placed on the anniversary of the 2009 notification of the Gangetic dolphin as the National Aquatic Animal, so a candidate who knows that older and much more frequently asked fact also has the new one. Build the dolphin file as a single block: National Aquatic Animal, 2009; Vikramshila sanctuary in Bihar; Schedule I of the Wild Life (Protection) Act; IUCN Endangered; Project Dolphin announced on 15 August 2020 and covering both river and marine dolphins; National Dolphin Day from 2022 on 5 October. UPPSC has asked from almost every one of those angles in recent years.

• National Dolphin Day is observed in India on 5 October, announced by the Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change and first observed in 2022.
• The decision was taken by the Standing Committee of the National Board for Wildlife at its 67th meeting.
• The Gangetic river dolphin (Platanista gangetica gangetica) was declared India's National Aquatic Animal on 5 October 2009, which is the anniversary the day marks.
• The species is listed in Schedule I of the Wild Life (Protection) Act, 1972 and is classified as Endangered on the IUCN Red List.
• It is functionally blind and hunts by echolocation, and it breathes air through a blowhole like every other cetacean.
• Project Dolphin, covering riverine and marine dolphins, was announced by the Prime Minister in his Independence Day address on 15 August 2020; the Vikramshila Gangetic Dolphin Sanctuary in Bihar is the only sanctuary in India dedicated to the species.

• Confusing India's National Dolphin Day on 5 October with international dolphin observances marked elsewhere on other dates.
• Assuming the dolphin is a fish; it is an air-breathing mammal, which is why river flow and surfacing space matter to its survival.
• Mixing up the two dolphin dates that matter — 5 October 2009 for the National Aquatic Animal notification and 15 August 2020 for the announcement of Project Dolphin.

UPPSC asks the bare date or year of a newly announced day, scheme or designation, usually within a year of the announcement; UPSC almost never asks a date, preferring the species itself — its conservation status, the threats it faces, or the identification of the national aquatic animal.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Project Dolphin, covering both riverine and marine dolphins, was announced by the Prime Minister in his Independence Day address of

  • (a)2018
  • (b)2019
  • (c)2020
  • (d)2022

  Answer(c) 2020 — announced from the Red Fort on 15 August 2020, a decade after the Gangetic dolphin was made the National Aquatic Animal.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  The Vikramshila Gangetic Dolphin Sanctuary is located in which State?

  • (a)Uttar Pradesh
  • (b)Bihar
  • (c)West Bengal
  • (d)Assam

  Answer(b) Bihar — on a stretch of the Ganga near Bhagalpur, and the only sanctuary in India notified specifically for the Gangetic dolphin.