Six captive-bred gharials have satellite-tagged for the first time and released in the river Gandak near Valmiki Tiger Reserve in Bihar to protect the critically-endangered reptiles from extinction.
"This is just the beginning; we look forward to expand this project if current restocking is successful. We will also research if we can restock gharials in other rivers of Bihar as well," Basheer Ahmad Khan, state Principal Chief Conservator of Forests, said about the reptiles released last week.
Under a joint initiative by the Bihar forest department and Wildlife Trust of India (WTI), the gharials, five females and a male, were bred in captivity at the Sanjay Gandhi Biological Park in Patna. Tagging with satellite transmitters would help monitor the health and movement of the fish-eating reptiles which could grow up to six meters in length and weigh up to 160 kg.
Since the 1940s, there was a drastic decline in the gharial population, dropping 96 per cent from 5,000-10,000 individuals to less than 200 in the 1970s. It was estimated that there were less than 200 mature gharials in India now and less than 35 in Nepal, and presumably extinct in Pakistan, Bangladesh and Bhutan.
To enrich the natural population, a restocking project was initiated by the forest department following discussions at a State Wildlife Board meeting in 2012, chaired by Chief Minister Nitish Kumar. Samir Kumar Sinha, WTI's regional head in Bihar, said gharials were seen only in the river Gandak and at some stretches of the river Ganga. The gharial was listed as a 'Critically Endangered' species in the IUCN Red List and under 'Schedule I' of Indian Wildlife (Protection) Act.
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