Punjab: Respiratory failure causes death of critically endangered gharial

AMRITSAR: One out of 47 gharials (also known as the gavial) released in Harikae Wildlife Sanctuary under Project Crocodile has died of respiratory failure triggering panic about the health of rest of the gharials and other aquatic species.
While talking to TOI on Tuesday, senior project officer, World Wide Fund (WWF), Geetanjali Kanwar, confirmed that the post-mortem report of the dead gharial had sighted respiratory failure as the reason of death.
“It is very difficult to say how the respiratory failure was caused. The animal was in wild; it is a natural death since neither there was any injury mark nor was any body part trapped," said she adding that animal’s body was intact . "There was no broken stout or tail etc,” she said.
She said that a couple of days ago, the body of gharial was found near Ferozpur feeder gate number 1 which was sent for post-mortem.
Under the Project Gharial , the wildlife department had releases 47 gharials in Harikae and Beas rivers in a phased manner between September 17 and March 2018 aiming to increase the population of gharials which have been declared critically endangered species.
Geetanjali said that during the last survey they had the direct count of gharials between 27 to 30 . “They were seen on island; many would have been fishing or inside water or had gone inside water when our team had approached close to them,” she said.
Sources said that the respiratory failure of gharial could be due to industrial affluent mixed polluted water of Satluj arriving from Ludhiana which mixes with river Beas at the confluence. “This is a very serious situation. The authorities have to swing into action before it is too late. Not only the lives of gharial, but of the dolphins could also be in danger,” said sources.