Every year, Google celebrates Pakistan's Independence Day with a little something special for users from Pakistan. Usually, this is in the form of a small graphic, cartoon or interactive on its search page called a "Doodle".
Like past years, this year too, Google has created a doodle for its Pakistani users to celebrate the event. But unlike past years where it has chosen to highlight historic buildings and heritage sites.
In a message posted on its Doodles page, Google said: "Today's Doodle artwork features a toothed whale species that is endemic to Pakistan — The Indus river dolphin. This endangered species, also known as the Bhulan in Urdu and Sindhi, is a special sighting in coasts off Pakistan."
Google users can also read 'a few untold stories about how Pakistan gained independence' by going through the company's Art and Culture page.
The doodle can be found on the main search page, and a smaller but different graphic is on the search results page.
In the past, Google's Doodle has drawn attention to the Markhor - the national animal of Pakistan.
You can find an archive of Google's Doodles on Pakistan's Independence Day here.
An archive of all Google Doodles relating to Pakistan can be found here.
Significance of Indus Dolphin
The International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) lists the Indus Dolphin as endangered.
Currently, it is only found in the Indus River system. These dolphins occupy about 690 kilometres of the Indus River, down from the 3,400 kilometres it is believed to have occupied over 100 years ago.
According to the last survey, which was held in 2019, there were as many as 1,419 dolphins between the Guddu and Sukkur barrages. The area in which they were counted is called the Indus Dolphin Reserves.
Earlier this month, there was an uproar after a blind dolphin managed to get into a canal that led to Balochistan, where some villagers shot it, killing it.
Hurting or hunting the endangered blind Indus dolphin - one of the rarest mammals in the world - is punishable under the law. Last year a man in Sukkur had axed a dolphin to death that had been caught in a net. The man was sentenced to five years in prison and fined Rs250,000.