The Gharial of Chambal a trial for Conservation

Photo: S Behera

Abstract: In the winter of 2007 and 2008, more than a hundred sub adult and adult gharial mysteriously succumbed in the Chambal River, unable to haul themselves out on the sand banks as temperatures fell below freezing. Chilled into immobility the gharial simply drowned.

The author is the Gharial Conservation Coordinator, WWF India, Lucknow.