Rapti River welcomes 25 Gharials
Feb 18, 2018-Nature conservationists and a
zoological society have released 25 Gharials into Rapti River. The
National Trust for Nature Conservation, Chitwan and Zoological Society
of London in Nepal released the crocodiles on Friday to help preserve
the endangered species of crocodiles. The two bodies sourced the
crocodiles from the crocodile breeding centre in Chitwan National Park, a
Rastriya Samachar Samiti report said on Saturday.
The Gharial (Gavialis gangeticus), is
one of the longest of all living crocodilians, measuring up to 6.25 m
(20.5 ft), though this is the upper limit, as the average adult Gharial
is only 3.5 to 4.5 m (11 to 15 ft) in length The act of releasing
crocodiles into the natural habitat this time was carried out
differently, with the involvement of the local Bote, Majhi and Musahar
communities.
The crocodiles were marked as per the three communities in a
symbolic way to help preserve the endangered species. This new way of
marking the crocodiles was carried out with the objective of increasing
the awareness of the locals in the conservation and preservation of
wildlife, said Chitwan National Park Protection Officer Bed Bahadur
Khadka.
The Gharial species of crocodiles are now limited to Chitwan and
Bardia only and so far more than 1,000 Gharials were released into the
rivers. Only few have survived. Latest census says there are only 198
crocodiles in Nepali rivers.
The crocodile breeding centre in the park has 595 crocodiles at
present. The authorities plan to release around 100 of them into their
natural habitat this year.
Romulous Whitaker and members of the Gharial Multi-Task Force,
Madras Crocodile Bank, write in their March 2007 publication under the
chapter ‘The Gharial: Going Extinct Again’, “This remarkably gentle
animal once thrived in the deep rivers of India, Nepal, Pakistan,
Bangladesh, Bhutan, and Myanmar, it is now virtually extinct in all but
the first two of these countries, where it is limited to 2 percent of
its former range.”
Whitaker is an Indian herpetologist, wildlife conservationist and
founder of the Madras Snake Park, The Andaman and Nicobar Environment
Trust (ANET), and the Madras Crocodile Bank Trust.
The Gharial thrived in all the major river systems of the Indian
Subcontinent, spanning the rivers of its northern part from the Indus
River in Pakistan across the Gangetic floodplain to the Irrawaddy River
in Myanmar. Today, it is extinct in the Indus River, in the Brahmaputra
of Bhutan and Bangladesh, and in the Irrawaddy River. Its distribution
is now limited to only 2% of its former range, writes Whitaker.
Early records for the Gharial are mainly anecdotal. Old
references indicate the Gharial’s abundance: common in the Indus River
in Pakistan (Francis 1910, Rao 1933); Gandak River in Nepal (IAK 1921);
Jumuna River in Uttar Pradesh (Hornaday 1885), and Kosi River in Bihar
(Shortt 1921).
By 1976, the estimated total population of wild Gharials had
declined from an inferred 5,000–10,000 animals in the 1940s and
throughout its huge former range (spanning the rivers of the northern
part of the Indian Subcontinent from the Indus in present-day Pakistan
3000 km eastward across the Gangetic floodplain to the Irrawady in
Myanmar) to fewer than 200 (Whitaker 1974), a decline of about 96
percent, writes the herpetologist.
Source : http://kathmandupost.ekantipur.com
Comments