Gharial hatchlings in river Girwa

Gharials are one of the critically endangered species of the country. There are a very few places left in the country where Gharials profusely breeds naturally. Katerniaghat is one of such places left in the world. In river Girwa, Gharials are breeding in a very small strech with highest congregation of breeding individuals. This year again natural breeding of Gharials went very well and around 1400 hatchlings of Gharial started their lives in river Girwa two months back. Though their lives are uncertain due to routine flooding in the river every year and very high runoff in the month of August-September, even then the news regarding small hatchlings diving in the shallow waters around the sandbars always gives us a sense of achievement and seeing the result of intensive species conservation initiatives taken since 2005 . The above two photographs have been sent by Fazlur Rahman of Katerniaghat Foundation, which are being shared with wishing an everlasting survival of this really endangered species in our river ecosystems.
Photo credit- M. K. Shukla, Range Officer (Katerniaghat Range)