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| Photo :
Laurel Converse |
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| Notes from the Field |
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Out of the Office and Into Gharial Country: GCA
Executive Officer visits the Chambal River
Laurel Converse
Day 1: Morena
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It had been a hot steamy day but now ominous dark clouds
gathered as we bumped down the road from Gwalior towards
Morena in the state of Madhya Pradesh. Rain began to
splatter the windshield and, thinking of my camera gear,I hoped it would stop before we reached the Chambal
River. I peered out the window at the severe
landscape I had been reading about for months. Sparse vegetation covered jagged little
hills separated by narrow
ravines and valleys like a labyrinth
had been cut into the brownish
orange earth. It was easy to see why this
countryside has |
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Photo : Laurel Converse |
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historically been a
hideout for bandits, there seemed to be an infinite number
of hiding spaces along this complicated landscape.
After half a year of working on gharial conservation
from an office I was finally going to gharial country, to
the National Chambal Sanctuary, the last stronghold of
gharials. I hoped to catch a glimpse of these rare animals
in their natural habitat at last. I was accompanied by GCA
researchers Dr. RK Sharma, Dr. RJ Rao, Madras Crocodile Bank
Research Fellow Shailendra Singh, and several members of the
Turtle Survival Alliance from the USA. Turtle and gharial
conservationists have the same concerns in the Chambal
River, as these animals share the same habitats and face
many of the same threats to their existence. One of the
purposes of this trip was to work out how we can combine our
efforts to achieve our mutual conservation goals.
As we neared the bridge over the Chambal River we could
see a crew of men just off the highway, shoveling sand and
loading it onto a truck. This was sand-mining, an industry
that poses one of the most significant threats to both
gharials and turtles in the Chambal. They were working just
outside the National Chambal Sanctuary boundaries, but as we
crossed the bridge there was another crew, working just
below the bridge on the banks of the river, apparently
within the Sanctuary boundaries. Sand-mining is illegal
within the Sanctuary, but there they were, in plain view of
every car crossing the bridge, right along a national
highway.
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| Our boat was docked on the opposite bank and we bumped
down the slope towards it. From the muddy bank I
surveyed the wide river, flanked by rocky cliffs on one
side and a stretch of sandy bank on the other, where the
sand-miners were. Just as we were about to climb in
someone shouted and pointed at a shape in the water. I
could make out two protruding eyes and a long snout,
unmistakably an adult gharial! I was immensely pleased
to see our first gharial already, and I admired its
striking form as it cruise down the middle of the
wide river. It was certainly |
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Photo : Laurel Converse |
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more
impressive to see this unique animal in its natural
habitat; it truly looked like the king of the river.
As we pulled out into the river something large, wrapped
in white cloth bobbed along in the water not far away. I
couldn’t make out what it was, so I turned my eyes back
to the deeper water, scouring it for more gharials. It
was only later, farther down the river as we pulled up
to the sand bank and I saw another bobbing object that I
realized what I had seen. A hand was visible sticking
out of the floating bundle. There were human corpses
floating in the water. There are crematory facilities
along the river, and traditionally the bodies are given
back to the river. Dr. Rao explained that children and
snakebite victims are often not cremated, but put into
the river instead, which is why some of the bodies were
not cremated. We saw at least five or six through the
course of the afternoon, and I wondered what
environmental impact this may have on the river.
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We got out of the boat to investigate some turtle
shells. I found a turtle skull (Chitra indica)
and the TSA members inspected the skull and shells. I
wondered, had these turtles died a natural death? Or
were they victims of bycatch in fishing nets like so
many turtles and gharials on the Chambal were?
The rain had cleared and wispy clouds now
streaked across the blue sky. Shepherds herded
their flocks of goats and water buffaloes along
the one bank and up the |
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Photo : Laurel Converse |
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steep cliffs while we walked along the
stretch of
sandy bank on the other side. I could now understand just how
limited gharial habitat is. Sandy banks are vital for
gharials to lay their eggs and bask, but they are
scarce, despite the huge size of the National Chambal
Sanctuary. Long stretches of the river are flanked by
rocky cliffs, which are unusable for gharials as nesting
sites. Only small stretches of this vast river contain
the deep water and sandy banks that gharials and many
freshwater turtles require, making each bank precious.
Riverside agriculture, livestock grazing, and
sand-mining are further reducing these scare and vital
gharial habitat areas.
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| Except for the corpses this was one of cleanest rivers
I’d seen in India. There were no candy wrappers or
plastic bags piled up at the waters edge, no stink of
sewage. There was barely any human habitation to be
seen, except for a village perched at the top of the
cliffs by the bridge. The air was clean and I truly felt
I was in a wild area, despite being within view of two
bridges. As we cruised farther down the river we could
see two juveniles gharials sunning themselves on a
sand bar. We
caught a brief
glimpse of
hatchling gharial at the river’s edge and |
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Photo : Laurel Converse |
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several mugger
crocodiles.
Unfortunately they were all too far away and too shy for
me to get a good photo. I was thrilled to see gharials
in this beautiful landscape, but it saddened me to think
that these were but a few last animals remaining from a
once sizeable population.
As the sun began to set we headed to the Deori Gharial
Rearing Centre (DGRC), on the road back to Gwalior. This
centre was set up in 1973 as a captive breeding and
“head-starting” center for gharials. |
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been hatched and reared here then released back into the
Chambal to supplement the wild breeding population.DGRC
now holds an impressive stock of healthy-looking gharials from the last few years. The DGRC museum has an
impressive collection of turtle shells and two enormous
gharial skulls. One of the DGRC employees kindly pulled
one of the gharial skulls out for us to admire, and
posed with it to provide scale for our pictures. |
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Photo : Laurel Converse |
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Sadly he told us
that this skull had been salvaged from the corpse of
a massive male gharial found drowned in a fishing
net within the sanctuary. Illegal fishing within the
Sanctuary kills many gharials like this one, and now
there are very few adult males left.
As we drove back to Gwalior, past the trucks loading
up still more sand, I thought of that huge drowned
gharial, and wondered what fate awaited the young
captive-reared
gharials if they were released into
the Chambal. Would they |
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Photo : Laurel Converse |
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survive to adulthood or be
drowned in a fishing net? If they reached adulthood
would they be able to find a mate? Would they be
able to find a sandy bank to lay their eggs? As I
gazed out over the wide river and the striking
landscape I could only hope that there is hope of
protecting this remarkable place, the last
stronghold of the gharial. |
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