Flawed conservation policies lead to decline in gharial population
| In the well-known Panchatantra story, a monkey wanting to cross the mighty Ganga befriends a crocodile. But a while into their friendship, the reptile’s intentions turn sinister: he and his wife want the monkey for lunch. The simian senses this and tricks the crocodile to get to safety. The story concludes with the monkey addressing his former friend from the safety of a tree: “I couldn’t have antagonised you when we were in the river. So, I had little option but to trick you when your intentions became clear.” Besides showing the monkey’s guile, the story alludes to a significant ecological fact: crocodiles are top predators of river systems. Versions of the fable are aplenty. Ancient and medieval Indian literature has references to the uneasy relations between humans and the reptile: |
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Life in captivity
people dependent on rivers couldn’t afford to antogonise the top predator of the water bodies. Accounts of 18th and 19th European travellers to India also carry references to the crocodile.One of the species mentioned is the gharial— Gavialias gangeticus, a thin-snouted variety found in the Ganga, Mahanadi and Brahmaputra river systems. Named after a pot-like bump (ghara or a pot in many Indian languages), this species is threatened—like other crocodile varieties. Not much has changed for the people dependent on the rivers: the only difference is that they don’t feel threatened by the reptiles; they are threatened by conservationists who alienate them from their livelihoods ostensibly to protect the gharial.
But sadly today, the top predator of river systems does not get much press even while its counterpart in forests, the tiger, hogs the headlines. “Scant attention is paid to species other than mammalian mega-fauna like the tiger, elephant and rhino,” rues Rom Whitaker, a crocodile expert associated with the Madras Crocodile Bank Trust, Mamallapuram, Tamil Nadu. Warnings of Whitaker and other experts did lead to the Crocodile Project in 1975. And in 1982, the un’s Food and Agriculture Organization (fao)— one of the project’s funders— proclaimed the project a great success.
But, says Whitaker, “ the situation has reversed and gharials are in serious trouble again. There are less than 200 adult specimens in the wild”.
kirtiman awasthi follows the missed turnings of crocodile conservation
 Gharials prefer living in deep waters of free-flowing rivers. Like tigers in the forest, gharials and other crocodilians are top predators in the aquatic system and thus are good indicators of state of an aquatic ecosystem. The reptiles feed on fish and keep all species under control, not allowing any other species, including ones that are invasive, to dominate the ecosystem.These reptilian predators usually feed on fish that are of no value to humans. They also feed on weak and sick fish and help control fish populations and keep river water clean and uncontaminated by their scavenging. The presence of crocodiles is an indication of a clean aquatic environment. Overfishing and pollution in rivers affect the gharial’s prey, ultimately affecting their survival. |