Environment Minister releases seven baby gharials into UP’s river Girwa to boost conservation efforts

Union Environment Minister Bhupender Yadav on Friday released seven gharial hatchlings into the Girwa River at Katarniaghat Wildlife Sanctuary in Uttar Pradesh, as part of an effort to revive the declining population of gharials, an important predator in the river ecosystem.

In a post on his microblogging site, the minister said the Gharial Conservation Project aims to protect the aquatic ecosystem and revive water bodies through a combination of in situ (on-site) and ex situ (off-site) conservation approaches.

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This latest initiative gives fresh impetus to conservation efforts that began over 50 years ago as a part of the Crocodile Conservation Project launched in 1975. In the early 1970s, the population of gharials—a fish-eating crocodilian species endemic to India, Nepal, and Pakistan—dropped drastically to around 200 individuals, prompting urgent intervention from the Indian government.

In India, gharials are found in several rivers, primarily tributaries of the Ganga, including the Girwa (Uttar Pradesh), Son (Madhya Pradesh), Ramganga (Uttarakhand), Mahanadi (Odisha), Gandak (Bihar), and Chambal (flowing through Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, and Rajasthan).

Conservation measures, such as breeding and rearing the reptiles in captivity followed by their release into the wild, helped revive the population until around 1991. However, the species has once again come under threat, largely due to human-induced factors like habitat loss, pollution, and riverine development, pushing it back towards the brink of extinction.

Reflecting this global decline, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) listed the gharial as critically endangered in 2007. According to its most recent Red List Assessment, India’s tri-state National Chambal Sanctuary—spanning Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, and Rajasthan—now hosts approximately 77% of the global gharial population, estimated to range between 300 and 900 individuals.