Indus river dolphin

The Indus river dolphin (Platanista minor) is a freshwater dolphin in the family Platanistidae. It is endemic to the rivers of the Indus basin in Pakistan and northwestern India. It was the first discovered side-swimming cetacean. In Pakistan, it occurs in the Indus River, where five small sub-populations are separated by irrigation barrages. In India, a very small isolated population at a very high risk of extinction lives in the Beas River. It is the national mammal of Pakistan and the state aquatic animal of Punjab, India. From the 1970s until 1998, the Ganges River dolphin (Platanista gangetica) and the Indus dolphin were regarded as separate species; however, in 1998, their classification was changed from two separate species to subspecies of the South Asian river dolphin. However, more recent studies support them being distinct species.