The Indus is among the great rivers of the world. It originates from the mountains of Tibet and flows through Ladakh and Pakistan before entering the Arabian Sea near Karachi. On its 2000-mile journey it passes through the Himalayan and Karakoram mountain ranges, the fertile plains of the Punjab and vast desert of Sind, encountering a rich variety of wildlife during its journey.

The Indus River dolphin is a very unusual kind of cetacean. It is thought to have its origin in the ancient Tethys Sea, which dried up around fifty million years ago forcing the dolphin to adapt to its only remaining habitat - the rivers. Living in the turbid waters of the Indus for millions of years has meant that its sight has been replaced by a sophisticated sonar system known as echolocation, which it uses to steer and hunt underwater. This species represents a unique genome, an irreplaceable part of the biodiversity of life on earth.

The Indus River dolphin occurs only in Pakistan, in the Indus River and its tributaries. Historically the dolphins were found right from the Indus estuary up into the foothills of the Himalayas. At present the dolphins occur only in small populations which have been separated by impassable barrages across the Indus River. It is estimated that there are about 1,100 Indus dolphins remaining in Pakistan. The species is listed as Endangered by the World Conservation Union (IUCN). The largest population is in Sindh between the Sukkur and Guddu and Taunsa, and then Taunsa and Chashma barrages.

Although the species prefers deep water, the Indus river dolphin can live in waters as shallow as 1 metre! They have a strange habit of swimming on one side, trailing one flipper in the mud in search for food, or they may swim with their beaks sticking straight out of the water. People who live by the Indus river, call the dolphins 'susu', which (in Urdu) is meant to sound like the sneeze-like breathing sound they make.