23 more endangered long-snouted gharials released in Beas
AMRITSAR: Under the Gharial reintroduction project in the Beas Conservation Reserve, 23 critically-endangered longsnouted gharials were released in Beas River near Salempur and Tahli forests in Hoshiarpur district on Friday. The gharials were transported in boxes from Chhatbir Zoo, where these had been kept for a year after being brought from the natural hatchery in Morena, Madhya Pradesh.
The Gharial reintroduction project of the Punjab forests and wildlife preservation department aims to establish a breeding population of the species in the state’s rivers.
In phase-1 of this project, 47 juvenile gharials were released in the Beas Conservation Reserve in three batches—10 on December 25, 2017, 15 on January 31, 2018 and 22 on March 15, 2018— in Amritsar and Tarn Taran districts.
The number of gharials released has now reached 70.
“Punjab chief wildlife warden RK Sharma helped us in choosing a suitable undisturbed stretch of Beas River near Salimpur and Tahli Forest in Hoshiarpur district for re-introduction of current batch of gharials,” said Gursharan Singh, district forest officer (wildlife) Hoshiarpur.
Rajesh Mahajan, divisional forest officer, wildlife, Pathankot range, said, “This time they were released from Hoshiarpur side as there we found the conditions needed for release.”
In the presence of Manish Kumar, conservator of forest, and Chhatbir Zoo field director M Sudhakar, a joint monitoring team of the Wildlife Division Hoshiarpur and World Wildlife Fund (WWF), India, has been formed for daily monitoring of Gharials for the next one month, officials said.