The great gharial revival

topic:	Conservation
located:	India
editor:	Bindu Gopal Rao

The Bihar Forest Department and Wildlife Trust of India (WTI) jointly implemented the Gharial Recovery Project, which began with the release of 30 sub-adult gharials (fish-eating crocodiles) born and reared at Patna Zoo.

The initiative aimed to reinforce a remnant population of the species in the Gandak River and began by surveying its stretch in 2010, recording about a dozen individuals in the river.

The project later adopted an adaptive approach to enhancing the species’ population, aiming to recover the Gharial population by implementing measures to improve habitat conditions, enhance breeding success and protect the habitats.

The project heavily relies on the collaborative efforts of the government’s forest department, conservation organisations like WTI and local community members who are conservation stewards.

The gram panchayat, the local village council along the river, has supported the conservation efforts. Samir K Sinha, Chief Ecologist at the Wildlife Trust of India (WTI), told FairPlanet that the project team detected year-old gharials during the river monitoring. “[The discovery] gave a clue of ongoing breeding in the river,” he said. “Thus, the team emphasised detecting nesting areas. Local farmers and fishers gave clues about gharial breeding sites, and breeding of the species in the Gandak River was recorded in 2016.”

The discovery of nesting sites has strengthened the prospect of gharial conservation in the river. The project found that gharial nests need protection against erosion and depredation. The project focused on mitigating these threats to enhance nesting success (successful hatching of nests), ultimately leading to an increase in the gharial population and their dispersal in suitable river stretches. Regular river monitoring helped identify other pressing threats, which were dealt with immediately through the direct involvement of the Forest Department of Bihar and Uttar Pradesh.

Gharial nesting sites are prone to erosion due to sudden rises in water levels after the release of water from the Gandak Barrage or high rainfall in the river catchments in late May or early June. “Many times, the nests are detected after the bank is eroded, and nothing can be done. Inundation of floodplains also poses threats to nests. The river channel is highly braided, and detection of nests and their protection becomes difficult. Gandak River is not protected for wildlife; hence, several extractive and developmental activities post challenges in protection and conservation of gharial and other aquatic organisms such as turtles and Ganges River dolphins,” said Sinha.

By bringing together all river system stakeholders for holistic conservation, this hatching and release event offers numerous reasons to celebrate the critically endangered species.

Image by WTI.

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