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Conservation > Current Conservation |
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| Photo : Suresh Chaudhari |
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| Current Conservation
Overview |
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Conservation work on gharials has been going on since
the late 1970’s. However the recent revelations that
gharial numbers are in steep decline indicates that
despite the efforts of dedicated individuals the past
strategies for conservation have not been effective.
Therefore the Gharial Conservation Alliance and its allies
are assessing past failures and developing new plans for
immediate action to stem the decline of gharials.
Past conservation efforts included extensive captive
breeding and “head-starting” gharials for release into
the wild. Although captive breeding has been very
successful the head-starting/wild-release programs seems
to have been ineffective in stemming the decline of
gharials, most likely due to the continued habitat
destruction and factors contributing to gharial
mortality.
Therefore the GCA is now focusing on habitat
protection, enforcement of protected areas, education
and cooperation with local people as conservation
priorities for gharials.
More on current conservation projects in the works can
be found in the GCA section
While these new efforts are getting started the GCA and
partners are continuing and stepping up population
monitoring efforts and ecological research.
This population and ecological data will be used in
developing and implementing management plans and
advising policy decisions by government. All current and
past data on gharials is being compiled to create a
Gharial Information Database, which will be a
valuable tool for future research and conservation work.
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