Villagers in Bihar's Gandak River Basin Help Recover Critically Endangered Gharials

In the sandbanks of Bihar's Gandak River, gharials now bask near villages where they were once killed on sight. For years, residents confused the critically endangered, fish-eating gharial with the mugger crocodile, which is known to attack humans, leading to persecution of a species that poses no threat to people.

Around 2014 and 2015, the Bihar Forest Department, Wildlife Trust of India (WTI), and World Wildlife Fund (WWF) intensified a collaborative recovery project in the Gandak basin, which holds the world's second-largest breeding population after the Chambal River. By 2016, monitoring confirmed natural breeding and documented more than 250 gharials of different age groups across six identified nesting grounds.

Conservation teams adopted an informal, boat-based approach to awareness, treating villagers as participants rather than outsiders. Fishermen became nest locators and watchers, reporting poaching attempts and vulnerable sites. During the 2020 COVID-19 lockdown, community watchers helped save 94 eggs from riverbank erosion.

A pivotal moment came in 2016 when Dr. Samir K. Sinha of WTI overheard local women speaking in Bhojpuri about a "Sugawa" — their term for a female gharial identified by snout shape. Their observation led researchers to discover six nests, providing the first strong evidence of natural breeding. Dr. Sinha noted that women are among the sharpest observers of river ecology despite social barriers to frontline conservation work.

Vernacular media and repeated conversations gradually replaced fear with familiarity. Residents who once destroyed eggs or harmed hatchlings now intervene to protect them. One villager recounted teaching children that killing gharials is wrong after witnessing a hatchling stoned to death.

Today, conservationists estimate nearly 80 percent of the Gandak River stretch supports gharial presence. However, the species remains fragile; Dr. Sinha reported that 80 percent of embryos died last year due to flooding and erosion. A conservation and incubation centre is being developed under a 2022 memorandum to improve hatchling survival.

India's modern crocodile conservation effort began in 1975 with UNDP and FAO support, establishing 20 rearing centres and 11 sanctuaries. By 2025, India hosted nearly 80 percent of the global gharial population, numbering over 3,000 individuals. One gharial released in Nepal's Rapti River was later found 850 kilometres downstream in West Bengal's Hooghly River, demonstrating the need to protect connected river networks.

Protecting gharial habitat also safeguards Ganges river dolphins, smooth-coated otters, northern river terrapins, and numerous birds and fish. The Gandak project illustrates that species recovery depends not only on breeding centres but on dismantling deep-seated fears so that riverine communities become active stewards of the ecosystem.