I spent the day today on the campus interviewing Dr.
Choudhary. What is fairly interesting is that he began his career as a Botanist
(person who studies plants). And in fact he is a faculty member of the
Department of Botany. This is a very big part of this campus and they in fact
have a graduate program just for botanical study.
|
Dr. Sunil Choudhary, Bhaglapur University, India (Photo: JLewis) |
Dr. Choudhary was asked to join the efforts to study the
Ganges river dolphin after other researchers/managers noted a gap for this type
of study near Bhaglapur University, and he was asked to fill that gap. He has
since been trained under a Fullbright fellowship where he spent time in the
United States working with many well known dolphin science teams. He has now published many papers on the Ganges river dolphin and is considered an expert on the subject.
I also get the chance to start interviewing and following
Subhasis. Subhasis began as a student at this University. He now works
alongside Dr. Choudhary as basically the field manager. I quickly learn that he
is absolutely instrumental to the success of this group to make any changes to
help preserve the dolphin in this area. Subhasis has gotten to know the local
fishermen and gained their trust and support. Dolphins and fishermen can be
competitors. Subhasis has begun a program where some of the fishermen (called
friends of the dolphin) work for him to help collect data on fishing activity
in this river within the Sanctuary. They need to determine how many fishing
methods are being used, and how frequently so they can have a better
understanding about the impacts on the local fish communities.
|
Subhasis Dey discusses work on the river with one of the local fishermen (Photo: JLewis) |
No comments:
Post a Comment