🤯 Did You Know (click to read)
The Chambal and Girwa rivers host some of the most stable remaining breeding populations.
Modern surveys show that viable gharial populations are confined to a small number of river systems in India and Nepal. Historically widespread across South Asia, their distribution has collapsed dramatically over the last century. Concentration into fewer than ten primary rivers increases vulnerability to localized disasters. Pollution events, disease outbreaks, or extreme floods in one system can affect a significant percentage of the global population. This geographic bottleneck amplifies extinction risk. The species’ fate now hinges on a handful of interconnected aquatic corridors.
💥 Impact (click to read)
When a predator’s entire range compresses into limited waterways, resilience diminishes sharply. Natural disasters that once would have affected a fraction of the population now threaten substantial proportions. Genetic diversity becomes constrained as isolated populations struggle to intermix. Conservation planning must therefore treat each remaining river as globally significant habitat.
This contraction illustrates how freshwater ecosystems have become some of the most endangered habitats on Earth. Rivers support dense human populations and infrastructure, increasing competition for water and sediment. The gharial’s survival is inseparable from sustainable river governance. Protecting a few rivers now equates to protecting an entire evolutionary lineage.
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