Chief minister Nitish Kumar will soon lay the foundation stone of a National Dolphin Research Centre on the premises of Patna University.

It will come up on a 2-acre plot at a cost of Rs 28 crore, deputy chief minister Sushil Kumar Modi, who heads the forest department, announced during the Dolphin Day programme at Patna zoo on Friday.

The state has been observing October 5 as Dolphin Day since 2012 to generate awareness on the animal’s importance for the river ecosystem. Gangetic dolphins are the national aquatic animal. Chief minister Nitish Kumar and Patna-based dolphin expert R.K. Sinha had played a major role in convincing the then central government to accord this status to the Gangetic dolphin, protected under Schedule I of the Indian Wildlife (Protection) Act and declared an endangered species by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

At the Dolphin Day function, Sushil said that services of three agencies had been hired to conduct a dolphin census in the state for Rs 42.72 lakh between November 15 and December 15.

The Telegraph had in August reported about the government plan of conducting the dolphin census.

The dolphin count will be conducted in the Ganga, Gandak and Ghaghara rivers. The Wildlife Trust of India (WTI), Zoological Survey of India (ZSI) and Tilka Manjhi Bhagalpur University (TMBU) will carry out the census. Personnel from the forest department too will take part in the census work.

The work plan for the programme says that the ZSI would conduct the census in the Ganga from Buxar to Mokama and the TMBU will do the same from Mokama to Manihari Ghat. The WTI has been given the task of the census in the Gandak and the Ghaghara.

Sushil also announced that a dolphin observatory was being built in Munger and a film on the aquatic animal was being made for public awareness.

Tiger count up

The number of tigers in Valmiki Tiger Reserve has gone up to 35, Sushil announced on Friday. He said Bihar’s only reserve for the big cats had witnessed a healthy growth in the number of tigers since 2007, when their number was around 10.

Sushil said facilities had been developed to promote eco tourism in the reserve so that people could visit it and see tigers in the wild.