Which river dolphin is the national aquatic animal of India?

The river dolphin that is India’s national aquatic animal is the Ganges river dolphin.

The Ganges river dolphin (Platanista gangetica) is a freshwater cetacean found in the Ganges-Brahmaputra-Meghna river systems of South Asia. The Government of India recognized it as the National Aquatic Animal in 2009, with the designation announced in 2010. It is also the official animal of Guwahati.

This dolphin is specially adapted to muddy, low-visibility rivers. Its eyes are very small and provide limited vision, so it relies heavily on echolocation to find fish and other prey. Its long, narrow snout, broad flippers, and rectangular dorsal fin give it a distinctive appearance. In India it is often known as the susu, while regional names include shushuk and shihu.

It is not the Amazon river dolphin, which lives in South America, nor the Irrawaddy dolphin, which inhabits coastal and freshwater environments in parts of Asia. The Ganges river dolphin remains endangered because dams, reduced river flow, pollution, fishing-net entanglement, and habitat fragmentation threaten its populations.