Something Of A Rebound For The Gharial, Thanks To Conservation Efforts In Nepal And India

[hatrack]

?itok=TIEDDs7X×tamp=1520538731

EDIT

There was a time when gharials were commonly found in the riverine ecosystems of the Indian subcontinent – in Pakistan, Myanmar, Bangladesh and Bhutan. But the population is estimated to have declined from up to 10,000 individuals in 1946 to fewer than 250 in 2006, a drop of 96%–98% within three generations, relegating them to the critically endangered category on the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s red list.

But today, thanks to concerted conservation efforts, there is a glimmer of hope for the gharial, which is now found mainly in India and Nepal.

Those efforts began in the 1970s, when the Indian government initiated a crocodile breeding and management project with the support of the UN’s development programme and Food and Agriculture Organization. The National Chambal Sanctuary was established in 1978 and the following year the first captive-bred gharials were released into the Chambal River, which cuts through ravines and hills in the three states of Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan. By 1992, the gharial population had increased to 1,095 individuals.

Despite setbacks – in the winter of 2007, more than 100 gharials were found dead because of gout, caused by toxins in the water – today the Chambal River still holds the largest population of gharials, with about 1,800 according to government estimates. The success of the Chambal project is now being replicated in Bihar. After 15 male and female gharials were observed on the Indian stretch of the Gandak River – which flows down from Nepal into India – in 2010, the Bihar government initiated a Gandak gharial recovery project. To reinforce the remnant gharial population in the river, captive born and reared gharials were released into the Gandak from 2014 to 2015, under a joint project with India’s Environment and Forest Department and the WTI.

EDIT

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/oct/19/rising-tide-why-the-crocodile-like-gharial-is-returning-to-indias-rivers-aoe

[callous taoboy]

1. I like hearing about successes like this in the natural world-

Thanks for posting!