The mission

“Save the Gangetic Dolphin” is the project of Englishman and world traveller Luke Coleman. Passionate about the natural world, Luke, like many of us, is dismayed at the devastating destruction of nature we are seeing in our lifetimes. With a philosophy he terms “D.I.Y. environmentalism” he wanted to find a way that he could do his bit to help. He says, “As one little human, one can often feel powerless to change much, faced with such enormous problems, so I formed the idea to concentrate on one particular animal that I could get behind.” Luke consulted a list of the world's endangered species but was overwhelmed with how many there were to choose from.

A few years later he made a pilgrimage to the all-creeds “wish granting” Temple of Manukamana in Nepal and wished to be shown which animal he should devote his life's work to. Two days after that a mysterious “hump” appeared out of a river he was crossing. When Luke learned that seeing this “hump” was in fact a sighting of a Gangetic dolphin he took it as a sign that this was the animal on which he should focus his efforts.

Following several more years of observation and research, Luke has learned that these truly are animals in dire need of saving or will without doubt be extinct within this century.

Luke believes that educating those that live in proximity to the river Ganges, along its banks, about the harm caused by pollution and raising awareness about the peril to the dolphins is critical to the conservation effort. In particular he believes that the future lies with the younger generation. It is his hope that if they be inspired to care about the problems caused by pollution and the plight of the dolphins, India's national aquatic animal, then they will hopefully grow up to want to change for the better how the river is currently being plundered and devastated.