The decision was announced by India's Minister of the Environment and Forests which also outlawed captive dolphin shows. The ministry added that dolphins "should have their own specific rights." (SOURCE)

Dolphins are extremely intelligent mammals with a highly-developed social structure. Recent research shows that dolphins call each other by name and can remember the unique name whistles from old "friends" heard just one time 20 years ago.

Dolphins choose their own unique name -- a series of complex whistles -- before they reach one year of age. From that point forward, all the other dolphins in their social group call them by that unique name.