37 gharials sighted in Beas, conservation efforts bear fruit

Punjab’s wildlife conservation has started showing results with critically endangered gharial (Gavialis gangeticus) sighted in the Beas — upstream of Talwara in Hoshaipur and Pakistan’s Punjab province.

According to a census survey conducted by the Department of Forests and Wildlife Preservation in collaboration with World Wildlife Fund (WWF)-India from March to April 2025, a total of 37 gharials had been sighted across 22 distinct locations in the Beas.

Now sub adults, “gharials will lay eggs in some years from, thus further adding to their numbers”.

Gitanjali Kanwar, senior coordinator of the WWF-India, said, “From December 2017 to December 2021, a total of 94 juvenile gharials were reintroduced in five batches into the Beas. They were translocated from the Gharial Breeding Centre at Deori, Morena, Madhya Pradesh.”

Once commonly found in the rivers of Punjab and locally known as Sansar, gharials had become extinct in the past three decades.

To restore this apex aquatic species, the Department of Forests and Wildlife Preservation, Punjab, launched the reintroduction project in 2017 in the newly declared Beas Conservation Reserve, following the IUCN reintroduction protocols. The initiative received technical support from the WWF-India.

To evaluate the success of the initiative and study habitat use and distribution patterns, annual pre and post-monsoon monitoring is conducted jointly by the department and WWF-India.

Dharminder Sharma, Principal Chief Conservator of the Forests, said, “In a bid to strengthen community-led conservation, the department is expanding its network of Beas Mitars and Gharial Mitars — local volunteers assisting in monitoring and awareness efforts. These grassroots networks play a pivotal role in ensuring the long-term survival of gharials and ecological integrity of the Beas.” Last year, a gharial was sighted in Pakistan’s Punjab province for the first time in three decades. Gharials were mentioned to be extinct in most of Pakistan’s rivers in 1978, according to the Pakistan Wildlife Conservation Strategy Report.

“The reasons attributed were construction of barrages, illegal killing for skin trade and the use of gill net for their capture. Our efforts are to ensure more natural habitat for gharials,” said Sharma.

Punjab