GHARIAL

The Gharial (Gavialis gangeticus), also known as the ‘Fish-Eating Crocodile’, is a species of Crocodile in the family Gavialidae and among the longest of all living crocodiles on earth. Mature females are 2.6 m – 4.5 m (8 ft 6 in –14 ft 9 in) long and males 3 m – 6 m (9 ft 10 in – 19 ft 8 in). They have a distinct boss at the end of the snout, which resembles an earthenware pot known as a ghara, hence the name "Gharial". The Gharial is well adapted to catching fish because of its long, thin snout and 110 sharp, interlocking teeth. It is the most thoroughly aquatic crocodile, and leaves the water only for basking and building nests on moist sandbanks.

The Gharial probably evolved in the northern Indian subcontinent. Fossil Gharial remains were excavated in Pliocene deposits in the Shivalik Hills and the Narmada River valley. It currently inhabits rivers in the plains of the northern part of the Indian subcontinent. The Gharial once thrived in all the major river systems of the northern Indian subcontinent, from the Indus River in Pakistan, the Ganges in India, the Brahmaputra River in north-eastern India and Bangladesh to the Irrawaddy River in Myanmar. In the early 20th century, it was considered common in the Indus River and its Punjabi tributaries. But by the early 1980s, it was almost extinct in the Indus. During surveys in 2008 and 2009, no Gharial was sighted in that river. It was also present in India's Godavari River but was hunted to extinction between the late 1940s and the 1960s. It was considered extinct in the Koshi River as well since 1970. In the 1940s, it was numerous in the Barak River in Assam, which held big fish at the time including Golden Mahseer (Tor putitora). A few individuals were also sighted in tributaries of the Barak River in Assam, Mizoram and Manipur up to 1988, but surveys were not carried out latter. In 1927, a Gharial was shot in the Shweli River in Myanmar, a tributary of the Ayeyawady River. This is the only authenticated record in the country attesting the survival of Gharials into the 20th century. Whether Gharials still live in the Shweli River today is possible but remained unclear in 2012.

The wild Gharial population has declined drastically since the 1930s, and is limited to only 2% of its historical range today. Conservation programmes initiated in India and Nepal focused on reintroducing captive-bred Gharials since the early 1980s. Loss of habitat because of sand mining and conversion of marshy land to agriculture, depletion of fish resources and detrimental fishing methods continue to threaten the population. It has been listed as “critically endangered” on the IUCN Red List since 2007.