The forest officials and wildlife experts on March 3 recorded the first documented sighting of the critically endangered gharial (Gavialis gangeticus) in Assam’s Kaziranga National Park and Tiger Reserve (KNPTR).
- A team saw the animal on a sandbar on the Brahmaputra river at Silghat area.
About Gharial
- The gharial derives its name from ‘ghara (pot)’ due to the shape of the bulbous growth at the tip of the snout in adult males. The growth is absent in females.
- While males can grow up to 6 metres, females usually are not longer than 4 metres.
- Odisha is the only state to have all the three species of the reptile —freshwater gharials, muggers, and saltwater crocodiles.
- It is listed in Schedule 1 of Wildlife Protection Act, 1972, as critically endangered in the IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature) Red List.
- According to the World Wide Fund (WWF), only around 800 gharials exist at present.
- According to the Wildlife Institute of India, today, their major population occur in three tributaries of the Ganga River: the Chambal and the Girwa Rivers in India and the Rapti-Naryani River in Nepal.
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