{"id":13237,"date":"2026-06-10T13:31:23","date_gmt":"2026-06-10T08:01:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/?p=13237"},"modified":"2026-06-10T14:38:32","modified_gmt":"2026-06-10T09:08:32","slug":"gharial","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/gharial\/","title":{"rendered":"Gharials"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><b>Gharials Latest News<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Recently, 31 gharial hatchlings have been released in the Bagaha area along the Gandak River in Bihar.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><b>About Gharials<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is a <\/span><b>freshwater crocodile<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> belonging to the Crocodylia Order and Crocodylidae Family.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The name \u2018gharial\u2019 comes from the <\/span><b>Hindi word ghara<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, meaning pot or vessel, referring to the <\/span><b>bulbous snout tip of adult males<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, which resembles an inverted pot.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Habitat Preference:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Gharials inhabit deep, clear, freshwater rivers with sandy banks, primarily within Himalayan river systems.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Distribution: <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is mainly found in the rivers of Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Myanmar, Nepal, and Pakistan.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Their major population occurs in three <\/span><b>tributaries of the Ganga River<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">: the Chambal (<\/span><b>Hosts the largest wild population<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">) and Girwa Rivers in India and the Rapti-Naryani River in Nepal.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The <\/span><b>Gharial reserves of India<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> are located in three States: <\/span><b>Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, and Rajasthan.<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Diet:<\/b> <b>Predominantly piscivorous,<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> gharials play a key role in regulating fish diversity and maintaining riverine ecological balance.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><b>Features of Gharials<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is one of the <\/span><b>largest crocodilians.<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">They have thick skin covered with smooth epidermal scales that do not overlap.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The <\/span><b>snout of the gharial<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> is uniquely the <\/span><b>thinnest and most elongated<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> among all the crocodilians.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In addition, the adult <\/span><b>males sport a large bulb<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> at the tip of their snout, called the \u2018ghara\u2019.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is also the most aquatic of all crocodilians, for it never moves far from the water. Individuals typically only leave the water to bask and nest on sandbanks.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Reproduction:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> They mate during November\u2013January and lay eggs March\u2013May.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><b>Conservation Status of\u00a0 Gharials<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>IUCN Red List:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Critically endangered<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>CITES:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Appendix I<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Wildlife Protection Act 1972:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Schedule I.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Source: <\/b><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.indiatoday.in\/science\/story\/gharial-hatchlings-bihar-gandak-river-conservation-success-endangered-species-2924053-2026-06-09\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">IT<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Gharial is a freshwater crocodile belonging to the Crocodylia Order and Crocodylidae Family. Read more about Gharials, Distribution, Features, Conservation Status, Latest News.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":13238,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[4766],"class_list":{"0":"post-13237","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-upsc-prelims-current-affairs","8":"tag-gharials","9":"no-featured-image-padding"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13237","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13237"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13237\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":107546,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13237\/revisions\/107546"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13238"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13237"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13237"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13237"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}