Gharials in trouble

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*http://www.centralchronicle.com/20061128/2811303.htm*

*State Pulse: Bihar: Croc can't go on *

The top predator of the river systems, crocodiles, is threatened. Report by

Kirtiman Awasthi

 

In 1970, a paper in Indian Forester by a group of scientists of the

Zoological Survey of India, led by its resident reptile specialist, S

Biswas, rang alarm bells. The scientists had surveyed the Kosi river in

Bihar- among the gharial's habitats in the country-and found that the

crocodiles were poached rampantly, killed for their skin or even trapped

inadvertently in fishing nets. Shifting of the Kosi's course and artificial

embankments also contributed to the decline in the reptile's population.

 

Besides, monsoon waters kept flushing gharials down to uninhabitable places

every year.

 

In 1974, another survey by Whitaker, confirmed all the worst years. That

year the gharials numbered less than 200 in the wild. Exact figures aren't

available, but conservationists estimate that in the 1940s, the Indian

subcontinent had between 5,000 to 10,000 gharials. The sharp fall called for

desperate measures.

 

The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species had come into

effect by then. It recommended a ban on the killing of all crocodile

species, and their translocation to protected areas (PAs).

 

The Indian government took up this recommendation in good earnest. The

gharial was accorded protection under the Wildlife Protection Act (WPA),

1972. Project Crocodile was started in 1975 with the aid of the United

Nations Development Programme and FAO. Stretches of the Mahanadi, Ganga,

Girwa and other rivers inhabited by gharials were declared PAs. The project

included an intensive captive breeding and rearing programme to create a

large crocodile population that would be ultimately translocated to these

PAs. An acute shortage of gharial eggs was overcome by their purchase from

Nepal, each egg costing Rs 200. A male gharial was flown in from a zoo in

Frankfurt, West Germany, to get the breeding programme going.

 

Sixteen crocodile rehabilitation centres and five crocodile

sanctuaries-National Chambal Sanctuary (NCS), Katerniaghat Wildlife

Sanctuary (KWS), Satkosia Gorge Wildlife Sanctuary, Son Gharial Sanctuary

and Ken Gharial Sanctuary-were established between 1975 and 1982.

 

Eight hundred and seventy-nine gharials, 190 estuarine crocodiles, and 493

muggers were released in the wild in that period. A Crocodile Breeding and

Management Training Institute was set up in Madras in 1980 to train managers

of crocodile stations. By 1991, 12,000 gharial eggs were collected from wild

and captive breeding nests, and over 5,000 gharial reared to about a metre

or more in length and released in the wild. Over 3,500 of these were

released in NCS, the biggest gharial reserve in the country sprawling across

425 km in Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan.

 

The programme was hailed the world over as a conservation model and that

sealed the fate of the gharial. In 1982 a report by Antoon de Vos, a

wildlife biologist, for the FAO/UNDP pronounced Project Crocodile as one of

the most successful conservation projects in the world. And in 1991, the

Union ministry of environment and forests felt that the project had served

its purpose, and stopped funds for its captive breeding programme. Funds

were also withdrawn for the egg collection programme. The thousands of

crocodiles seen in various rearing stations and captive breeding centres

were testimony enough for success.

 

Others, however, were not that optimistic. The real litmus test for the

project lay in increased sighting of the reptile in its natural habitats,

they argued. And that was fraught terrain.

 

De Vos had suggested stepping up the monitoring of released gharial to

determine the continued effectiveness of Project Crocodile. In 1997-1998,

monitoring exercises by the forest departments of Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan

and Uttar Pradesh located over 1,200 gharials and over 75 nests in NCS. But

no survey was carried out between 1999 and 2003. And the 2003 survey showed

catastrophic results.

 

*-Down to earth feature*