Indian Crocodile: Gharial's back into the wild

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Gharials are blessed with adaptability power and have survived thousands of years by balancing with ecological change. Their adaptability trait is leading them to survive in the wild. The secret of their adaptability trait is higher immunity, fewer predator species,  ectothermy, highly evolved metabolism. They being the top predators, conveniently move between habitats, plays a crucial role in transferring energy between the system. Crocodiles are necessary for the proper functioning of the system, by stabilizing the ecosystem and providing ecosystem services, also creates habitat linkages.  

Gharial Status in India

There are only three species of Indian Gharial found in India. The Indian species are Gharial, Gavialis gangeticus (Gemlin 1789); the Mugger, Crocodylus palustris (Lesson 1831); and the Estuarine Crocodile, Crocodylus porosus (Schneider 1801). This species is listed as Critically Endangered on the IUCN Red List (Choudhury et al. 2007) and is considered the most endangered large animal on the Indian Subcontinent and one of the most endangered of all crocodilians (GCA 2008). It is a keystone species of running freshwater ecosystem and plays an important role in aquatic systems by distributing nutri­ents from the bottom of the riverbed to the surface, escalation of primary production and fish populations, and sustaining the aquatic ecosystem (CSG 2018). Various conservation efforts and species monitoring activities have been started to sustain its existence in Ganga.


Fig.The study area and the site where an Indian Gharial (Gavialis gangeticus) was sighted along the Lower Ganga Canal, Narora, Uttar Pradesh, India (LGC = Lower Ganga Canal; PLGC = Parallel Lower Ganga Canal). (Source: IRCF Reptiles & Amphibians ISSN 1098-6324)


Juvenile Gharial Population

WII and the Government of India are doing a commendable job for protecting Gharials of Ganga River. They have opted for a systematic approach for the conservation of Gharials. Kukrail Rehabilitation Center was set-up in the 1970s and today it has become a successful breeding and rescue center and worldwide this center and Gharial Rehabilitation Program is praised. 245 Juveniles have been released to the Ganga and 5,410 totals to distinct rivers (till 2016). Released to the wild when they are less vulnerable to predation. The approach involves these components:

  • Local Community Participation in rescue and rehabilitation activities
  • Wildlife Monitoring provided to the local communities and Ganga Prahari volunteers to assess the species population and habitat
  • High-frequency radio tags were tagged in their tail which helps in further monitoring of gharial
  • Gharials spent their initial 3yrs at the Rehabilitation Center.
  • Maintenance of Kukrail rehabilitation Center
  • Infrastructural development of Kukrail Rehabilitation Center like setting-up new devices for their health check-up, and other basic amenities.
  • Captive Breeding Programme
  • The area is well-covered to reduce any kind of disturbance
  • Veterinarians and researchers are working day and night at the Kukrail Center
  • The bio-logging Method is used to monitor habitat and underwater behavior



The 'grow and release' program is a management method that has been widely used for rehabilitating the threatened population of crocodilians. It comprises of captive rearing of animals, obtained by incubating and hatching eggs collected from the wild. Hatchling crocodilians suffer extremely high mortality (>90%) in the wild that is offset by captive rearing for several years to a size when mortality rates are significantly reduced. Thus, the depleted wild crocodilian population is supplemented with juvenile crocodiles which are said to be 'head start' by captive rearing. 'Grow and release', formed the mainstay of the Gharial management programme of UP for many years.

The project is going well according to the NMCG and WII reports the species habitat and Population are in a better place due to honest efforts made by multistakeholder's at Kukrail. In the coming days, they plan to involve more and more local communities in the conservation programme to fulfil the objectives of the Rehabilitation Plan.



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