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India’s only experience of keeping dolphins was in the late 1990s. Four dolphins were imported from Bulgaria to Chennai’s Dolphin City, a substandard marine-themed amusement show, where they died within 6 months of arrival.
New proposals
Several state governments had recently announced plans for the state tourism development corporations to establish dolphinariums for commercial dolphin shows. Dolphins are a major tourist attraction at amusement parks abroad.
The major proposals that were made for similar establishments were by the Maharashtra Tourism Development Corporation, the Kerala fisheries department in Kochi and a few private hoteliers in Noida in the National Capital Region.
Why ban?
Cetaceans, including whales, dolphins and porpoises, are known to be highly intelligent animals. However, they do not adjust well to living in captivity. Confinement alters their behaviour and causes extreme distress.
The captivity industry exploit the lives of dolphins by denying them freedom and being allowed to cause them harm and the captivity industry has become adept at hiding the harm they cause to dolphins in their care.
Despite the fact that some humane laws exist to prevent unnecessary cruelty, animals are still considered property and are usually denied the basic rights of life, liberty or freedom from harm.
The rights include not to be captured, confined, or killed, in order to prevent the suffering that they most likely experience when these rights are violated.
Several countries, including Brazil, the United Kingdom and Chile, have banned dolphins in captivity.
The move by MoEF came after months of protests against a proposed dolphin park in the southern state of Kerala and plans for several other marine mammal parks in other parts of the country.