“But we are worried as the gharials freed for their natural breeding have been lost,” lamented crocodile expert Bed Bahadur Khadka.[break]
Khadka revealed 146 gharials raised at the breeding center in Chitwan National Park were released in Narayani and Rapti rivers alone. But a recent count found just 25 of them in these rivers. “The numbers have declined in other rivers as well,” Khadka said releasing 10 six-year-olds, including six female, in Rapti in Chitwan Wednesday.
“It takes a lot of effort and money to raise gharials. But they are long dead when we look for them in rivers,´ he stated. Experts, however, maintain that the numbers are down also because the chances of gharials raised in controlled conditions surviving in big rivers are low. “They are raised with utmost care in parks and their chance of surviving in the natural environment is always low,” claimed Chief Conservation Officer of Chitwan National Park Narendra Man Babu Pradhan.
"Monitoring has revealed that just one out of the 10 released survives in the rivers," Pradhan said, "and the rest die before procreating due to encroachment of habitat."
Former chief conservation officer Ram Prit Yadav said the rapid rise in fishing in big rivers is a major cause behind the decrease in the number of gharials. Conservationist Naresh Subedi said gharial would become extinct from Nepal if proper attention was not paid to their habitat and food.
There are just 200 adult gharials living in the world with half of them in the rivers of Nepal, the experts claimed. The park released 43 gharials in Rapti, Narayani, Bardiya, Babai and Karnali rivers last year and plans to release 100 more this year.
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