Crocodiles add 22 new members to their endangered family

JAIPUR: Here is good news for wildlife-lovers and environmentalists: the on-the-verge-of-extinction gharial is having a baby boom. The city zoo has reported birth of 22 juveniles of the species this month. Jaipur Zoo is the second one in the country (after Patna), which has got the gharials conserved in a controlled environment.
Indian gharial (gavialis gangeticus), once the charm of the Chambal river, is now waging a battle for survival.It is the first crocodilian species to be re-categorised as "critically endangered", according to International Union for Conservation and Natural Resources (IUCN).
Deputy Chief Wildlife Warden SN Kachawa, who is in charge of the zoo, said gharials are more adapted to an aquatic lifestyle in calmer areas of deep, fast moving rivers. The gharial is poorly equipped for locomotion on land. So usually it leaves the water only to bask and nest, both of which usually occur on sandbanks.
"The Jaipur zoo has neither deep nor flowing water but it has been lucky to witness the birth of about two dozen juveniles this month," he said, adding that the young crocodiles were found just five days back. The pond where the juveniles have been spotted have two mature females and a male gharial.
Veterinary doctor Dr CP Singh said all the juveniles were in good health.
Gharials derived its name from the Indian pot, ghara, which re-sembles the bulbous nasal appendage found on mature males. They were found within the river systems of Brahmaputra (Bhutan & In-dia), the Indus (Pakistan), the Ganges (India & Nepal) and the Mahanadi (India) with small populations in the Kaladan and the Irrawaddy in Burma.
Despite early successful conservation efforts, the gharials have run out of luck and its wild population is on sharp decline.
Presently, their population is estimated to be around 200 only. So serious is the decline that the species has
been included in the Red List of 2007 IUCN.