Disasters leave a trail of destruction in their wake. So did Cyclone Yaas as made its landfall on the coast of Balasore, Odisha tearing through homes. Early warnings and prompt action of the authorities ensured that humans found safer grounds, but this didn’t save properties from getting washed off, thousands of trees from getting uprooted and hundreds of animals from getting drowned. Cyclones like Yaas have become a common annual phenomenon in recent years but while humans will fight back, the implications for wildlife are far reaching! Amidst this tale of destruction is our story of regeneration as conservation in today’s day and age cannot be achieved without hope and optimism.

700 kilometres from the coast of Balasore, the Gandak River on the Bihar – Nepal border had started swelling. After Yaas made its landfall, its journey further inland had a little less rage but was still powerful enough to cause river banks to break down. After more than 32 hours of incessant rains, the water level had risen by 10 feet  and homes on these sandy banks were getting washed away.

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photo credit: Subrat K Behera and Pappu Yadav

The Gandak River basin hosts one of last remaining and the second largest breeding population of gharials. Categorised by IUCN Red List as Critically Endangered, this reptile relies on the river banks to lay its eggs. Ideally, females lay clutches of 40-50 eggs, a bit farther up the banks and incubate them, before the hatchlings are ready to crack through the shells and make their way into the waters. Even afterwards, the babies will need to stick to their parent’s side for more than a month, before they are strong enough to fend for their own. Their survival heavily depends upon being together as a family, under the protection of the adult gharial.

Of the several threats that gharials face today, river bank erosion has been a prime factor contributing to the decline in their population. We had located six nesting sites before the rains, of which three were lost to the increasing water levels after the cyclone. We were able to reach and save one nest from the remaining and recovered 42 eggs. These eggs will now be incubated by replicating natural factors. The other two nests are yet to be retraced as the water levels have increased. The fast current of the flood waters wash off hundreds of immature eggs from the Gandak basin every year. This is besides the fact that several adult gharials may also be unable to navigate the rapid currents and their carcass would be found several kilometres downstream.

Gharials are very shy of nature and always find remote river beds to lay eggs. These are far from human habitation and the only way to locate them is with the active participation of local fishermen in conservation. Our field team at Gandak basin has been working relentlessly for more than seven years now to ensure protection of the species and local fishers and communities have been instrumental in this conservation success. During the lockdown in 2020, it was these specially trained community watchers who kept an eye on the nests and saved as many as 94 eggs. With support from the Bihar Forest Department, and the villages like Birwat, our team is constantly tracking the remote river banks of the Gandak this year too, wading through waist deep currents and under the scorching sun.

The incubated eggs have a hatching success rate between 80 and 90 per cent and WTI has restocking our river systems with these hatchlings.

Looking for undisturbed river beds, these reptiles will migrate hundreds of kilometres from their nesting sites, for newer breeding grounds. In fact, a gharial that was released in Rapti River in Nepal had made its way till the Hooghly River in Nadia last year, more than 850 kilometres downstream! With human activities increasing all along our river systems and natural disasters becoming all pervasive, we are at a stage where this fish eating, shy reptile is critically endangered.

To save gharials, we need to save our rivers and river banks. For now, we are elated to have saved this clutch of 42 eggs and are waiting to put the hatchlings back into the river.

About the author: Subrat K. Behera is a Wildlife Biologist by profession. Eleven years of his work with WTI has taken him from saving animals from train hits in Dudhwa, surveying elephant corridors in the eastern states, tiger conservation in Valmiki, saving the Sarus crane in eastern Uttar Pradesh to gharial conservation in the River Gandak where he is happiest living on a boat or camping on riverbeds.