Conservation of the Indian Gharial Gavialis gangeticus: successes and failures

Abstract

The Gharial Gavialis gangeticus, a long‐snouted crocodilian endemic to the Indian subcontinent, is Critically Endangered and has teetered on the brink of extinction for the past several decades. From historical populations of perhaps 10 000 animals, Gharials numbered in the hundreds by 1974. Project Crocodile – an Indian government initiative – became a poster boy for crocodile conservation. Based almost entirely around a head‐starting programme, the effectiveness of Project Crocodile was called into question when populations crashed again in the late 1990s. In the 21st century, with the support of the international zoo community and the International Union for Conservation of Nature/Species Survival Commission's Crocodile Specialist Group, Madras Crocodile Bank Trust began to address the shortcomings of Gharial conservation up to that point, to ensure that future plans for the species would succeed.