Bijnor (Uttar Pradesh), March 2 (IANS) Twenty-two adult gharials have been sighted at the Hastinapur Wildlife Sanctuary in the just-concluded census conducted on the 170-km-stretch between the Bijnor and Narora barrage.With a survival rate of just 0.5 per cent, the sighting is being considered a 'huge achievement' for the Uttar Pradesh forest department and WWF India, which put in efforts to save the critically endangered species from extinction.In 2008, more than a hundred gharials mysteriously died in the Chambal River.According to wildlife experts, only 650 adult gharials (Gavialis Gangeticus) exist in the wild in the world. Almost all of this population is located in India and Nepal.The extremely low survival rate is due to several factors such as a skewed sex ratio, attacks by predators, and other anatomical issues.Senior coordinator of aquatic biodiversity at WWF India, Sanjeev Yadav, said, "A gharial takes about 14 years to mature, after which it begins breeding. In the past 13 years, we introduced 818 captive-reared juvenile gharials who were just a year old in the Ganga at the Hastinapur sanctuary. We monitored them continuously around the river stretch, which is spread across five districts of Uttar Pradesh."
--IANS amita/dpb
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