‘Let us live,’ say the gharials and muggers of Chambal

‘Chapak’… there was sound of water splashing and we turned our heads in that direction. A huge mugger crocodile jumped into the water. Probably he had seen us coming.

“Sir it’s a male, they are quite shy, they escape inside water even on slight disturbance” said our guide Dinesh.

“Did you get It?” I asked my companion Kamal Sahansi , a veteran wildlife photographer.

“I think so, what about you?” said Kamal.

“Not sure, I was trying to focus my lens, suddenly it moved,“ I said.

“Sir you will get many of them, Chambal is full of muggers and gharials,” Said Dinesh, our guide of Mela Kothi in Chambal Wildlife Sanctuary, about 70 kms from the Taj Mahal. We were on a small motor boat and as we moved on, we saw two muggers or marsh crocodiles . The juvenile one was resting on the muddy bank. The other was male adult resting on the sand.

I had seen many documentaries on crocodiles of Africa and how they aggressively attack their prey that dare venture into their territory. There’s something viscerally unsettling about their reptilian eyes and the power they exude. See a 10-15 feet long crocodile and it’s hard to think of yourself as anything more than food when you are in the river. In India, muggers (Crocodyles Palustris) are listed as vulnerable in the IUCN list.

The big male marsh crocodile with big broad-snouted mouth with heavily ‘armoured’ body, gave us a ‘don’t-mess-with-me’ menace and fearsome look. We started clicking furiously. It was close – almost at eye level. Suddenly it lifted its bulky belly on its feet and walk-crawled into the water. I kept looking in the water anxiously, waiting for the mugger to emerge in our boat. Thankfully it decided not to join us in our boat.

Satisfied with this great photo session, we moved on looking for the main target – gharial (Gavialis Gangeticus). They are a rare species of crocodiles which are “Most Critically Endangered” in the IUCN list. As is the case with so many special creatures, the gharial population experienced heavy declines over the past several decades. In the river ecosystems of Pakistan, Myanmar, Bangladesh, and Bhutan, it is estimated that gharial populations declined from around 10,000 in 1946 to fewer than 250 in 2006, which led them to be classified as critically endangered.

It is truly disheartening to read these numbers, but fortunately, thanks to conservation efforts, there is hope for the gharial. Conservation efforts began in the 1970s when the Indian government initiated a crocodile breeding and management project with the support of the UN and Food and Agriculture Organization. In 1978, the National Chambal Sanctuary was established and the following year the first captive-bred gharials were released into the Chambal River, which cuts through ravines and hills in the three states of Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan.

Over the years, close to 1,400 gharials were released in the river through a captive-breeding program. The number of gharials was 905 in 2012 and increased to 1,896 in 2019. On the other hand, the sanctuary had 205 mugger crocodiles in 2012 and their number rose to 706 in the past seven year. Today, the Chambal river still holds the largest population of gharials. Interestingly Gharials and Muggers both have been coexisting in this Chambal river.

The success of the Chambal project was replicated in Nepal and three states of India – Uttar Pradesh, Odisha and Bihar.

The highlight of our cruise along the Chambal River was undoubtedly an encounter with the second largest crocodile in the world, the long-snouted gharial (second only to the monstrous saltwater crocodile).

The gharials are shy and disappear into the water seeing the boat or hearing the motor sound. The boatman cuts off the engine and begins rowing towards them. The reptiles look magnificent. There were 4-5 of them basking on the sand with a huge mugger in the background. Their heads were raised and long snouts were shut. They had razor sharp teeth, upper set perfectly interlocked with the lowers. Their olive color glistened in the sun.

Though their rows of sharp teeth look menacing, they are specialized for catching and holding onto fish, and pose little danger to people (unlike the muggers). A few had mouths wide open, exposing an array of razor sharp teeth. Others had their snouts pointing at the sky. The male, once he reaches maturity at about 13 years, has a distinctive knob (ghara or earthen pot) that begins to grow at the end of his snout.

One of the reptiles was tagged. The National Chambal Sanctuary and other agencies are working to save this species and keeping tabs on them by tagging them with trackers. As we approached closer, a few slowly belly-glided into the water.

Gharials are one of three crocodilians native to India, with the other two being the mugger and saltwater crocodiles. They are among the longest of crocodilians, with males measuring up to 6 metres or 20 feet and weighing up to 160 kg. Fish eaters, the gharials are characterised by their long, thin snouts and more than 100 sharp, interlocking teeth.

As we raced back, the setting sun was turning Chambal’s still water orange and a juvenile gharial on the sand bar, was kind of telling us: “The Chambal is the last refuse for us gharials. Please, Mujhe Jeene Do. (Please let me live).” Mujhe Jeene Do was a 1963 Hindi film, the first film on dacoits shot in the ravines of Chambal. Experts say the wild life of Chambal was safer when real dacoits used to rule over this region. No one dared come here. But now sand mafias, poachers, illegal fishing, hunting and mining, industrial pollution is posing a big danger to Chambal and subsequently the gharials and other species that live in it. It’s a wakeup call for all concerned states and agencies. “The Ganga and Yamuna are holy but polluted,” says our guide Dinesh, adding, “the Chambal is unholy, but the water healthy for these species.”