These shocking images taken by a passerby show a group of fishermen carrying an endangered river dolphin away to be eaten after illegally catching it.
The dolphin had apparently got trapped in their net by mistake as the four men from Naseerpur village, India, fished on the Yamuna River on 22nd July.
According to Shravan Kumar Singh of the Pipri Police Station, Uttar Pradesh state, the men failed to release the dolphin back into the river.
Instead, Singh said, they took it ashore and carried it to a house, where they cooked and ate it.
Images show how at least two of the fishermen carrying the large mammal on their shoulders look young enough to still be in school.
The police launched an investigation after a Chail forest ranger lodged a complaint about the incident.
The police stated on 24th July that one of the suspects had been arrested, while the other three were being sought.
The detained man has been named as Ranjeet Kumar, while the missing trio have been identified only as Sanjay, Deevan, and Baba.
The four are accused of violating India’s Wild Life (Protection) Act, 1972.
The dolphin the men caught from the Yamuna – which is the second-largest tributary of the Ganges – is likely to be a Ganges river dolphin (Platanista gangetica).
The species is classified as “endangered” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.
This means it is very likely to become extinct in its known native range in the near future.
In Hinduism, the Ganges river dolphin is associated with the deity Ganga. India designates the species its “national aquatic animal”.
