Bangladesh oil spill ‘threatens rare dolphins’
Bangladesh officials warned Thursday that an oil spill from a crashed tanker is threatening endangered dolphins and other wildlife in the massive Sundarbans mangrove region, branding the leak an ecological "catastrophe". The tanker carrying an estimated 350,000 litres (75,000 gallons) of oil collided on Tuesday with another vessel and partly sank in the Sundarbans' Shela river, home to rare Irrawaddy and Ganges dolphins. "The oil spill has spread over a 60 kilometre-long (37 mile) area in the Shela and Passur rivers," Amir Hossain, chief forest official of the Sundarbans, told AFP. The oil spill has already blackened the shoreline, threatening trees, plankton, vast populations of small fishes and dolphins," Hossain said.
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