Brahmaputra (Assam): In what might cheer the wildlife enthusiasts, a survey team of Kaziranga national park, has recently bumped on documentary evidence of the presence of Gharials in the Brahmaputra river.
The survey team included members from Kaziranga National Park and Tiger Reserve and members of the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) India.
Indian Gharial (Gavialis gangeticus) is the only surviving member of an ancient family of crocodiles, found to swarm the Ganges and its tributaries from Chambal in Rajasthan to Mahanadi in Odissa and Brahmaputra and Barak valley of Assam. Their population has declined drastically since the 1930s.
Members of the team had undertaken a survey regarding river dolphins and near the Silghat area, the team spotted a gharial on the sandbars. The team video recorded the gharial basking in the sun before it jumped into the river.
Forest officials said that although there were reports of sightings of gharials in the Brahmaputra at Hajo in Assam's Kamrup district in 2001, at Manas river in 2006, and on the Brahmaputra river near Chapar in Dhubri district in 2008, it is for the first time that documentary evidence of the presence of gharials was collected.
Various conservation programs were initiated in India which focused on increasing the population of gharial. Loss of habitat due to sand mining and conversion to agriculture, depletion of fish resources, and detrimental fishing methods continue to threaten the population. It has been listed as critically endangered on the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List since 2007.
