{"id":13237,"date":"2026-01-15T11:31:23","date_gmt":"2026-01-15T06:01:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/?p=13237"},"modified":"2026-01-16T15:19:57","modified_gmt":"2026-01-16T09:49:57","slug":"gharial","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/gharial\/","title":{"rendered":"Gharials"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><b>Gharial Latest News<\/b><\/h2>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Despite significant existential threats, a comprehensive survey across the Ganga River basin recently revealed a population of 3,037 gharials (Gavialis gangeticus), the critically endangered fish-eating crocodile, inhabiting 13 of the surveyed rivers.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2 style=\"text-align: justify;\"><b>About Gharial<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul style=\"text-align: justify;\">\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><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=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Scientific Name: Gavialis gangeticus<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The <\/span><b>name \u2018gharial\u2019<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> comes from the<\/span><b> Hindi word ghara, meaning pot or vessel,<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> referring to the <\/span><b>bulbous snout tip of adult males, <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">which r<\/span><b>esembles an inverted pot.<\/b><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2 style=\"text-align: justify;\"><b>Gharial <\/b><b>Distribution<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/h2>\n<ul style=\"text-align: justify;\">\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Its range spanned the <\/span><b>rivers of Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Myanmar, Nepal, and Pakistan.<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Their major population occurs in three <\/span><b>tributaries of the <a href=\"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/upsc-exam\/ganga-river-system\/\" target=\"_blank\">Ganga River<\/a>: <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">the <\/span><b>Chambal and Girwa Rivers in India and the Rapti-Naryani River in Nepal.<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Gharial reserves of India are located in three States: U<\/span><b>ttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, and Rajasthan.<\/b><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2 style=\"text-align: justify;\"><b>Gharial <\/b><b>Features<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul style=\"text-align: justify;\">\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is <\/span><b>one of the largest crocodilian <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">species, with males reaching 16 to 20 feet (5 to 6 meters) in length. Females typically grow to lengths of 11.5 to 15 feet (3.5 to 4.5 meters).<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">They have <\/span><b>thick skin covered with smooth epidermal scales that do not overlap.<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The <\/span><b>snout <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">of the gharial is <\/span><b>uniquely the thinnest and most elongated among all the crocodilians.<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In addition, the <\/span><b>adult males sport a large bulb at the tip of their snout<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, called the \u2018<\/span><b>ghara<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u2019.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is also the<\/span><b> most aquatic<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> of all crocodilians, for it<\/span><b> never moves far from the water<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.\u00a0 Individuals typically only leave the water to bask and nest on sandbanks.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><b>Reproduction<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">: They mate during November\u2013January and lay eggs March\u2013May.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2 style=\"text-align: justify;\"><b>Gharial <\/b><b>Conservation Status<\/b><\/h2>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">It is classified as &#8216;<b>Critically endangered<\/b>&#8216; under the IUCN Red List.<\/p>\n<p><b>Source:<\/b> <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.newindianexpress.com\/nation\/2026\/Jan\/14\/endangered-gharial-population-defies-odds-3037-spotted-in-ganga-river-basin\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">NIE<\/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":0,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13237\/revisions"}],"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}]}}