Odisha, Jun 24: For the first time in four decades, a forest protection team spotted a nest of a female gharial (fish-eating freshwater crocodile) with 28 hatchlings. The nest is on the banks of river Mahanadi in Odisha. Gharials are critically endangered (at risk of extinction) species. The primary reasons for the decrease in their numbers are illegal fishing, change in river condition (it became shallow), illegal sandmining, and mugger (another species of marsh crocodile)-gharial conflict. In order to conserve them, Odisha Government has setup a Gharial Research and Conservation Unit at Tikarpada. Here, they rear gharials under captive breeding, in collaboration with Nadankanan Zoo, Bhubaneshwar. From 1977 to 2017, they have released 867 adult gharials into the Mahanadi river. According to the census taken in 2018, only 12 of them survived. This is for the first time that a gharial has reproduced
in its natural habitat due to great efforts of experts, forest officials, and local communities.
