I joined the whore zoo as one of the
first women to be the full-time employee
at a zoo in PacSun and that’s when I
worked with lots of animals chimpanzees
and lions I also red-handled a leopard
cub at home which then I had to give
away because it was illegal and
obviously I was doing it for a little
while and then I whenever something
happened to an animal I felt a lot of
pain so much so that I thought that I’m
unfit to work for animals because I
would be crying and howling it it was
all all like it was craziness and
terrible so I thought to change that
pain into energy to work for animals and
you can only get the real satisfaction
when you work for animals in the wild in
situ and you work for saving their
habitat so although my effort to my
advocacy and effort to work for wild
animals and they’ve improved welfare
continues but I largely work with
animals in in the wild Institute and my
first break came when I was part of a
rescue operation for an Indus River
Dolphin and what industry or dolphin is
is a Bullen in the local Cindy it’s like
the vernacular limb for the for the
river dolphin so we traveled to sakr and
I landed at the airport and we came out
of the airport and then after like five
minutes drive you see huge river so I
was like totally excited
yes and the driver corrected me and said
this is a keither canal and I was amazed
that good a canal be so huge like a
river and actually we you know that
Pakistan has one of the biggest network
of irrigation canals because we have
largely an irrigation we are largely an
added country and has this huge network
of canals to irrigate our crop now this
this is how an Indus River looks like so
you it’s it’s massive its serene but
these canals which we have for
irrigation purposes they cause a lot of
problems for river dolphins and that’s
precisely why we were there so we were
supposed to rescue a dolphin which means
physically lifted and transported on a
stretcher into the main stream of the
river and release it we have to do this
because otherwise they’ll be there in
the canals and as the water level drops
they can die because they need water to
survive they are mammals but they
surface out to breathe but without water
there is no food nothing for them that’s
how an intestine looks like they come
out of the water to take a breath now
when I was in Sakr my first experience
of river dolphin I was sitting by the
bank and actually recording the
surfacing intervals of river dolphins so
how long do they take to come out of the
water to take a breath okay so when I
noticed that whenever there was
disturbance outside the water they were
taking longer so they would take four
minutes underwater but wherever there
the river was calm and there was no
board no fishing activity no disturbance
they will be more regular there will be
more regular surfacing so which is like
a minute and a half
two minutes otherwise they’ll be under
water for up to four and a half minutes
as I said so they are I what I realized
was they were so sensitive to their
outside environment and they were
constantly connected to it and I found
it incredible amazing so we have in this
dolphin is actually one of the only four
species of river dolphins that are found
in the world so we are very blessed to
have one of them now there are lots of
myths and legends attached to the
evolution of river dolphins and because
this is the mysticism that comes with
them and people are you know always
creating stories so we had for for
Yancey it is known as the goddess of
Yangtze it’s it’s for them it’s like
goddess and then we have Botero vicious
the south american river dolphins and
they’re the interesting story about
Porto is that it comes out of water
every night it becomes a handsome man
and it comes out and mingles with girls
and all these girls fall in love with
him and then he impregnates them you
know on the top of it and then goes back
to the river in the end so you know how
interesting is that
but then in distortion has another
legend and that is that she it is about
a woman and there was a woman who would
bring milk to a saint every day and
after many years she said nothing doing
I’m not doing it anymore and the Saint
said that you I curse now you go to this
river and to
Shh all your life and this brush push
sound is the breathing sound of the in
destruction because it’s enamel it comes
out and when it comes out it has a nose
on the top of its head so it comes out
and it it’s exhaling so that’s that’s
the story of the Indus River Dolphin now
but that’s we know that this is not true
the evolution part is that there was a
time which was like 20 million years ago
the sea water level rose and sea water
inundated the river basins and then
marine dolphins swam into the rivers
gradually the sea level went down again
but these dolphins remains stuck in
those rivers and gradually evolved to be
river dolphins so that’s the reality but
again this is this is also a hypothesis
and we are not sure that probably made
this may not be true so we had indus
river dolphin and all the five rivers
gradually we had water infrastructure
that came up all the barrages and dams
which divided the habitats and then they
could not move the way they could that’s
how a barrage looks like so it
they became structures that hindered the
movement and now the interest Alphin is
only restricted to the mainstream of the
Indus the amazing thing is that yes
you’re in Lahore and in the in the Ravi
like up to 1960s we had induced orphans
so close to us we would have been lucky
if they were still there but there are
so many problems water infrastructure is
just one of those problems we had water
pollution issues we still have them of
course and we have agriculture pollution
industrial pollution
genetic deterioration there are many
many things that are happening to in
this river dolphin and this just gives
an indication that if water quality what
water health is not right then these
dolphins are just indicating that it’s
not right for us either
the fish from that river is not suitable
for our consumption either now the
biggest problem to River dolphins is
that they get entangled in the nets gill
nets remain a biggest problem for river
dolphins I was once at a social event
and I was just talking about River
dolphins that an elderly lady came up to
me and said I am so concerned that they
can’t see and I actually prayed that
River dolphins get their eyesight back
so that’s amazing and it’s a hard thing
to hear her say that but I said please
just note that this is not a matter of
concern forever dolphins because they
have very well-developed and
sophisticated echolocation system sonar
system like we haven’t read us and they
produce sounds these sounds touch their
surroundings come back they received and
they know exactly what’s there what size
word shape what texture so echolocation
is very well develop sophisticated they
know exactly what’s happening around
them but one thing where echolocation
also fails is getting it now gill net is
like this can you see this can anyone
see this like from a distance not this
part but like this part so that’s how a
given it looks like it’s so thin it’s
made up of nylon it’s thin it’s long and
they’re stretched across the river till
the bottom
and liberal dolphins are just attracted
to them because they are fish entangled
in them as well and when they come they
bang against them they try to you know
loosen up but then they move and they
get entangled more and more and they get
drowned because again I would stress
they are mammals so they have to come
out and river dolphins die in fishing
nets in fact by G which is the Chinese
river dolphin is now extinct and the
biggest problem that led to their
so when River dolphins die we do their
post-mortems of course and I have seen
really tiny shrimp very tiny very tiny
fish in their stomach and that’s because
again their echolocation is so
sophisticated that they can hunt on very
tiny animals conservation of river
dolphins is very challenging and it’s
challenging because the habitat is very
tough it’s hot it’s it also has some
security issues but we have been
surveying River dolphins every five
years and we know the population trends
exactly so we sit on these high
platforms like six feet high we sit on
them in the Sun all day and we do this
all day and then camp at night again all
day in camp at night for up to six to
eight weeks and we record dolphins and
we know their numbers exactly so when
you come back from the survey you can
look like this so that’s me and that’s
more like afterwards we have our board
short at we had our teams taken hostage
because you have to certain you know
certain patches where the security
situation was very serious
and Indus River is is otherwise
extremely serene and it’s coming to
beyond the port on the river we want to
understand river dolphins more and more
and that’s why we put these tags on them
to actually know that if they can pass
through a barrage or not
are these barrages physical barriers or
actually river dolphins can pass through
them so we this was an animal which we
named mustapha and we found out that
muzaffer was released it was released
upstream the end in the Indus and the
Sakai barrage and we found that it was
going downstream upstream so it was you
know able to move so it means that there
is hope mirages still are not physical
barriers and they still hope for more
genetic material flowing through them so
that you know the vigour of a population
is maintained I’m coming to the end and
I’ll give you a kind of a summary in a
way that imagine this you have only
2,000 people left in the world so it’s
like probably three four times the
people in this room so imagine the
situation there would be so much
research so much money coming together
to you know saving Homo sapiens this is
the same emergency situation we have for
in the stall fin because we have to be
precise 1987 dolphins left in the Indus
now and this is according to a latest
survey which happened last year so it is
an emergency situation and humans are
those species that if we see in terms of
biomass which is the dry carbon weight
we are only 110 pounds
of the earth biomass so we are tiny but
in the last 10,000 years what we have
done is that we have destroyed plants up
to 50% and we have cost extermination of
wild mammal species up to 85% which is
terrible we have the biggest impact we
have to act now and again I’ll say 20
years ago when I joined this field of
conservation I was told you are doing a
service if you are it’s a service to
this planet but today the situation is
so bad that I think it’s an obligation
on me it’s an obligation on all of us to
contribute and do something and that’s
the role that each one of you each one
of us would have to take up whether you
have chosen or not it’s the role that
you would have to take up as an
obligation and responsibility thank you
very much [Applause]
first women to be the full-time employee
at a zoo in PacSun and that’s when I
worked with lots of animals chimpanzees
and lions I also red-handled a leopard
cub at home which then I had to give
away because it was illegal and
obviously I was doing it for a little
while and then I whenever something
happened to an animal I felt a lot of
pain so much so that I thought that I’m
unfit to work for animals because I
would be crying and howling it it was
all all like it was craziness and
terrible so I thought to change that
pain into energy to work for animals and
you can only get the real satisfaction
when you work for animals in the wild in
situ and you work for saving their
habitat so although my effort to my
advocacy and effort to work for wild
animals and they’ve improved welfare
continues but I largely work with
animals in in the wild Institute and my
first break came when I was part of a
rescue operation for an Indus River
Dolphin and what industry or dolphin is
is a Bullen in the local Cindy it’s like
the vernacular limb for the for the
river dolphin so we traveled to sakr and
I landed at the airport and we came out
of the airport and then after like five
minutes drive you see huge river so I
was like totally excited
yes and the driver corrected me and said
this is a keither canal and I was amazed
that good a canal be so huge like a
river and actually we you know that
Pakistan has one of the biggest network
of irrigation canals because we have
largely an irrigation we are largely an
added country and has this huge network
of canals to irrigate our crop now this
this is how an Indus River looks like so
you it’s it’s massive its serene but
these canals which we have for
irrigation purposes they cause a lot of
problems for river dolphins and that’s
precisely why we were there so we were
supposed to rescue a dolphin which means
physically lifted and transported on a
stretcher into the main stream of the
river and release it we have to do this
because otherwise they’ll be there in
the canals and as the water level drops
they can die because they need water to
survive they are mammals but they
surface out to breathe but without water
there is no food nothing for them that’s
how an intestine looks like they come
out of the water to take a breath now
when I was in Sakr my first experience
of river dolphin I was sitting by the
bank and actually recording the
surfacing intervals of river dolphins so
how long do they take to come out of the
water to take a breath okay so when I
noticed that whenever there was
disturbance outside the water they were
taking longer so they would take four
minutes underwater but wherever there
the river was calm and there was no
board no fishing activity no disturbance
they will be more regular there will be
more regular surfacing so which is like
a minute and a half
two minutes otherwise they’ll be under
water for up to four and a half minutes
as I said so they are I what I realized
was they were so sensitive to their
outside environment and they were
constantly connected to it and I found
it incredible amazing so we have in this
dolphin is actually one of the only four
species of river dolphins that are found
in the world so we are very blessed to
have one of them now there are lots of
myths and legends attached to the
evolution of river dolphins and because
this is the mysticism that comes with
them and people are you know always
creating stories so we had for for
Yancey it is known as the goddess of
Yangtze it’s it’s for them it’s like
goddess and then we have Botero vicious
the south american river dolphins and
they’re the interesting story about
Porto is that it comes out of water
every night it becomes a handsome man
and it comes out and mingles with girls
and all these girls fall in love with
him and then he impregnates them you
know on the top of it and then goes back
to the river in the end so you know how
interesting is that
but then in distortion has another
legend and that is that she it is about
a woman and there was a woman who would
bring milk to a saint every day and
after many years she said nothing doing
I’m not doing it anymore and the Saint
said that you I curse now you go to this
river and to
Shh all your life and this brush push
sound is the breathing sound of the in
destruction because it’s enamel it comes
out and when it comes out it has a nose
on the top of its head so it comes out
and it it’s exhaling so that’s that’s
the story of the Indus River Dolphin now
but that’s we know that this is not true
the evolution part is that there was a
time which was like 20 million years ago
the sea water level rose and sea water
inundated the river basins and then
marine dolphins swam into the rivers
gradually the sea level went down again
but these dolphins remains stuck in
those rivers and gradually evolved to be
river dolphins so that’s the reality but
again this is this is also a hypothesis
and we are not sure that probably made
this may not be true so we had indus
river dolphin and all the five rivers
gradually we had water infrastructure
that came up all the barrages and dams
which divided the habitats and then they
could not move the way they could that’s
how a barrage looks like so it
they became structures that hindered the
movement and now the interest Alphin is
only restricted to the mainstream of the
Indus the amazing thing is that yes
you’re in Lahore and in the in the Ravi
like up to 1960s we had induced orphans
so close to us we would have been lucky
if they were still there but there are
so many problems water infrastructure is
just one of those problems we had water
pollution issues we still have them of
course and we have agriculture pollution
industrial pollution
genetic deterioration there are many
many things that are happening to in
this river dolphin and this just gives
an indication that if water quality what
water health is not right then these
dolphins are just indicating that it’s
not right for us either
the fish from that river is not suitable
for our consumption either now the
biggest problem to River dolphins is
that they get entangled in the nets gill
nets remain a biggest problem for river
dolphins I was once at a social event
and I was just talking about River
dolphins that an elderly lady came up to
me and said I am so concerned that they
can’t see and I actually prayed that
River dolphins get their eyesight back
so that’s amazing and it’s a hard thing
to hear her say that but I said please
just note that this is not a matter of
concern forever dolphins because they
have very well-developed and
sophisticated echolocation system sonar
system like we haven’t read us and they
produce sounds these sounds touch their
surroundings come back they received and
they know exactly what’s there what size
word shape what texture so echolocation
is very well develop sophisticated they
know exactly what’s happening around
them but one thing where echolocation
also fails is getting it now gill net is
like this can you see this can anyone
see this like from a distance not this
part but like this part so that’s how a
given it looks like it’s so thin it’s
made up of nylon it’s thin it’s long and
they’re stretched across the river till
the bottom
and liberal dolphins are just attracted
to them because they are fish entangled
in them as well and when they come they
bang against them they try to you know
loosen up but then they move and they
get entangled more and more and they get
drowned because again I would stress
they are mammals so they have to come
out and river dolphins die in fishing
nets in fact by G which is the Chinese
river dolphin is now extinct and the
biggest problem that led to their
so when River dolphins die we do their
post-mortems of course and I have seen
really tiny shrimp very tiny very tiny
fish in their stomach and that’s because
again their echolocation is so
sophisticated that they can hunt on very
tiny animals conservation of river
dolphins is very challenging and it’s
challenging because the habitat is very
tough it’s hot it’s it also has some
security issues but we have been
surveying River dolphins every five
years and we know the population trends
exactly so we sit on these high
platforms like six feet high we sit on
them in the Sun all day and we do this
all day and then camp at night again all
day in camp at night for up to six to
eight weeks and we record dolphins and
we know their numbers exactly so when
you come back from the survey you can
look like this so that’s me and that’s
more like afterwards we have our board
short at we had our teams taken hostage
because you have to certain you know
certain patches where the security
situation was very serious
and Indus River is is otherwise
extremely serene and it’s coming to
beyond the port on the river we want to
understand river dolphins more and more
and that’s why we put these tags on them
to actually know that if they can pass
through a barrage or not
are these barrages physical barriers or
actually river dolphins can pass through
them so we this was an animal which we
named mustapha and we found out that
muzaffer was released it was released
upstream the end in the Indus and the
Sakai barrage and we found that it was
going downstream upstream so it was you
know able to move so it means that there
is hope mirages still are not physical
barriers and they still hope for more
genetic material flowing through them so
that you know the vigour of a population
is maintained I’m coming to the end and
I’ll give you a kind of a summary in a
way that imagine this you have only
2,000 people left in the world so it’s
like probably three four times the
people in this room so imagine the
situation there would be so much
research so much money coming together
to you know saving Homo sapiens this is
the same emergency situation we have for
in the stall fin because we have to be
precise 1987 dolphins left in the Indus
now and this is according to a latest
survey which happened last year so it is
an emergency situation and humans are
those species that if we see in terms of
biomass which is the dry carbon weight
we are only 110 pounds
of the earth biomass so we are tiny but
in the last 10,000 years what we have
done is that we have destroyed plants up
to 50% and we have cost extermination of
wild mammal species up to 85% which is
terrible we have the biggest impact we
have to act now and again I’ll say 20
years ago when I joined this field of
conservation I was told you are doing a
service if you are it’s a service to
this planet but today the situation is
so bad that I think it’s an obligation
on me it’s an obligation on all of us to
contribute and do something and that’s
the role that each one of you each one
of us would have to take up whether you
have chosen or not it’s the role that
you would have to take up as an
obligation and responsibility thank you
very much [Applause]
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