Indus Dolphin Reserve

The Indus river dolphin lives only in this river and is functionally blind, having lost the use of its eyes over evolutionary time in water too silty for vision; it navigates and hunts entirely by echolocation, swimming on its side with a flipper trailing the bottom. Dams and barrages fragmented its range through the twentieth century and the population fell to a few hundred, but protection along the stretch between the Guddu and Sukkur barrages, where the reserve was declared in 1974, has brought numbers back to well over a thousand, one of the genuine conservation successes in South Asia. Seeing them means a boat trip on the river with a local boatman or a wildlife department guide: the dolphins surface briefly to breathe, showing a rolling grey back and a low fin ridge rather than the arcing leap people expect.

What you actually see

• Surfacing dolphins - brief rolling breaths rather than dramatic leaps.
• The reserve stretch - protected river between the Guddu and Sukkur barrages.
• River life - fishing boats, riverine forest and waterbirds along the banks.
• Barrage works - the structures that fragmented and now bound the range.

When to go

November to February for comfortable weather and lower water, which concentrates the animals and improves sightings. Early morning is best. Summer is brutally hot on an open boat and the high monsoon flow disperses the dolphins.

Honest expectations

Sightings are brief glimpses of a back and blowhole, not a whale-watching spectacle, and photographs are difficult. Trips need arranging locally and standards vary; a wildlife department contact improves both the ethics and the odds. Boats are small and open with no shade. Do not accept operators who chase or crowd the animals.

Nearby

Sukkur and Sadhu Belo are the base; Kot Diji lies south.