“Woh dekho, alligator” (look there, an alligator), exclaimed my guide, Dushyant Singh, pointing towards a crocodilian on the riverbank. “Aapka matlab gharial? (you mean, a gharial?), I tried to correct him. Since both of us were more interested in crocodilian behaviour than nomenclature, I let the faux pas slide while the reptile slunk into the waters of the Chambal.
The National Chambal Sanctuary, situated on a 425-km protected stretch of the Chambal River, was established in 1979 to protect the gharial, a crocodilian with a unique lineage. I was, therefore, surprised to learn from the owner of my homestay, Rudrapratap Singh, in Palighat, Rajasthan, that many tourists inadvertently refer to the gharial as an alligator. It’s surprising because the alligator is not found on the Indian subcontinent at all. The Chambal River, flowing through Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, and Uttar Pradesh, harbours two species of crocodilians — gharial (Gavialis gangeticus) and mugger (Crocodylus palustris).
The gharial is a large crocodilian, capable of growing up to 6 m in length. The difference in size between the gharial and the mugger (which grows to 3-4 m) became even more evident to me when I spotted adults of both species basking next to each other. The gharial’s snout is the thinnest and most elongated of all crocodilians. The species is named after the large bulb-like structure resembling a ghara (pot in Hindi) that males have on the tip of their snout. The male gharial produces a buzzing sound to attract females during their courtship period in mid-February. The ghara acts as a resonator, amplifying the sound, which can be heard up to half a kilometre away.
On a safari one morning, we sighted a family of eight gharials around a river island. The gharials gradually dispersed into the river as our boat approached. Gharials are the most aquatic of all crocodilians, never moving too far from water. In India, the gharial is mainly found in the Chambal along with small populations in the Girwa, Gandak and Ramganga Rivers.
We sighted an adult female gharial on the riverbank that evening. Its back towards us, the reptile was unmindful of the approaching boat. An orange sun ready to sink into the river completed the quintessential Chambal scenery of a critically endangered reptile resting peacefully in a sanctuary earmarked for its safety. Gharial numbers in India plummeted during the 1970s due to loss of habitat, hunting, and entanglement in fishing nets. The Indian government launched Project Crocodile in 1975 to revive the three populations of crocodilians found in India — gharials, saltwater crocodiles (Crocodylus porosus), and muggers or marsh crocodiles. Gharials were reared in captivity and released in the wild as part of the project. Along with the National Chambal Sanctuary, the Katerniaghat Wildlife Sanctuary, Satkosia Gorge Wildlife Sanctuary, Son Gharial Sanctuary, and Ken Gharial Sanctuary were established between 1975 and 1982.
On a stretch of the Chambal River near Palighat, my guide, Moralilal Berwa, pointed out spots where he had spotted gharial hatchlings just before the monsoon. Gharials usually nest on mid-river sandbars and along steep sand banks in slow-moving sections of the river. They are the only crocodilians with visible sexual dimorphism (males and females look different). Between January and February, males and females congregate to mate in deep pools near their nesting sites. The female then digs a hole in the sand and lays up to 40 eggs between late March and early April.
On our way back to the jetty, we saw a juvenile gharial basking with its mouth open. If it weren’t for the sunlight bouncing off its smooth scales, we would have missed it as it lay camouflaged in the clay. The reptile paid no heed of the ripples hitting the shore, blinking briefly before shutting and reopening its slender jaws.
After hatching, young gharials break into smaller groups and disperse into shallower, rapid-flowing stretches of the river as water levels rise during the monsoon. They return to the deeper sections of the river when they are around 10-15 years old.
One afternoon, I saw a subadult gharial soaking in the sun from a rock in the middle of the river at Bah, Uttar Pradesh. Around 100 sharp, interlocking teeth jutted out of its jaws. Young gharials mainly feed on insects, larvae, and small frogs. Adults, on the other hand, almost exclusively feed on fish. Their bulbous eyes stay above the water, allowing them to scan their surroundings, while their needle-like teeth are perfect for securing struggling, slippery fish, which they catch with a rapid sideward swing of the jaw.
During a visit to the Madras Crocodile Bank Trust (MCBT) at Mamallapuram in January 2023, I was awed by the sheer size of an adult gharial swimming in a tank. I looked up in amazement at its yellowish-white underside as the animal surfaced for air. In 2008, after a mass mortality event in which 110 subadult gharials were found dead in the Chambal, the MCBT initiated a radio telemetry project to investigate the deaths.
“We decided to use telemetry to see how gharials use the river and which habitats they prefer. We found that subadult gharials don’t move much and tend to stay in an area of 5-10 km. We suspect that the veterinary drug diclofenac must have caused the death of the subadults as gout formation was observed in their bodies,” revealed Jailabdeen Ajji M., Project Director, Gharial Ecology Project, MCBT.
During the investigation, Jailabdeen and his team tagged more gharials, including hatchlings and adults. They found that the gharial’s habitat downstream on the Chambal differs from its upstream habitat. “The gharial’s habitat downstream is a wide-open meandering river with no rock formations. Upstream, however, you see them in fast-flowing water with a lot of rocky terrain,” he said.
As luck would have it, my guide and I spotted a juvenile with a transmitter tied to its back at Palighat, upstream in the Chambal. “We found through our telemetry work that gharials use almost the entire river. They undertake seasonal migrations, travelling to river and nullah confluences to feed during the monsoon. Almost 90 per cent of adult gharials feed during the monsoon and hardly eat through the rest of the year. That’s how they accumulate body fat and prepare for the breeding season,” explained Jailabdeen.
In Bah, we sighted an enormous male resting its head on the riverbank with the rest of its body in the water. Looking at the size of its ghara, I couldn’t help but think that the reptile must tire of carrying its pot everywhere and needed to place it down occasionally. “Eighty to eighty-five per cent of the global population of gharials is found in the Chambal because it is a free-flowing river without too many dams. The main issues facing the Chambal today are water diversion for human use, sand mining, and river-linking projects. The greatest threat to gharial survival is the destruction of their habitat. While raising young gharials in captivity and then releasing them in the wild helps to an extent, it is critical that the gharial’s habitat is protected simultaneously,” emphasised Jailabdeen.
On my last day on the Chambal, its infamous ravines towered in the background as we took a U-turn around a river island bearing four female gharials. Terns flew past us. Lapwings called incessantly. Yet, it was the gharials that held our undivided collective attention. After all, these enormous creatures had managed a U-turn from the brink of extinction to reclaim their rights over the Chambal River.
About the author
Anirudh Nair
is a staff writer with Roundglass Sustain. He enjoys walking through the wilderness and is constantly in awe of wild nature.
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