Over the past week, coinciding with World Crocodile Day, a wave of good news arrived for the critically endangered gharial population in the Gandak River. A collaborative effort by the Wildlife Trust of India (WTI), the Forest Department, and local nest watchers led to the successful hatching of 160 gharials across six monitored nests.
This year marks a significant milestone with the discovery of the first-ever gharial nest in Uttar Pradesh’s Sohagibarwa Wildlife Sanctuary. The nest, located near Sadhu Ghat, belonged to a previously released female gharial from Nepal, identified by unique markings.
“We’ve been closely monitoring six nests across the Gandak River basin in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh for the past three months,” said Subrat Behera, Manager & Project Head of WTI’s Gandak Gharial Recovery Project. “Five of these nests hatched successfully, with one remaining unhatched at the time of this report.” This achievement surpasses last year’s success of releasing 125 gharial hatchlings.
Gharial nests face a constant threat – riverbank erosion. This collaborative project proactively addresses this challenge. Patrolling begins in March to locate nesting females and potential nests. Once confirmed, the site is under continuous surveillance.
In Sohagibarwa, a nest containing 34 eggs was discovered precariously close to the waterline. To ensure their safety, the eggs were carefully transferred to an artificially created nest further from the riverbank. The relocated nest, monitored by forest staff and with technical support from WTI, successfully hatched 33 gharials.
“Without intervention, these hatchlings would have been lost to erosion,” explained Mr. Behera. “The riverbank had eroded over ten feet from the original nest location by the time of hatching.”
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The successful hatching and release of these gharials underline the critical role of continuous monitoring, community involvement, and addressing threats like riverbank erosion, predation, and others. Since 2013, the Gandak Gharial Recovery Project has safeguarded 44 nests and released over 600 hatchlings, significantly boosting the local gharial population – the second largest in the world for this species. The project is a collaborative effort between WTI, the Department of Environment, Forest, and Climate Change (Government of Bihar), the Uttar Pradesh Forest Department, and supported by the Los Angeles Zoo.pen_sparktunesharemore_vert
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