Muggers are Attacking & Eating Up Gharials in Chambal Sanctuary!

New Delhi: The endangered gharials, the long-snouted freshwater crocodilian species, are being attacked and even being eaten up by the Mugger crocodiles in the National Chambal Sanctuary, reported The Telegraph.

The National Chambal Sanctuary is a 610 km segment of the Chambal river in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh, which is being promoted for gharial conservation. But in recent times, the rise in the population of mugger crocodiles in the area has become “a serious threat” to the gharials.

Both muggers and gharials live in freshwater habitats and compete for resources.

A study by scientists at the Wildlife Institute of India (WII), Dehradun, has found that the mugger population in the Chambal Sanctuary has increased from 19 in 1984 to 674 by 2019. These muggers have become unintended beneficiaries of the gharial conservation programme and are now threatening the gharials themselves, said Surya Prasad Sharma, a WII researcher and lead author of the study to The Telegraph.

Fights between gharials and muggers have increased in the area and muggers are eating juvenile gharials.

The findings hint at a successful colonisation of the Chambal Sanctuary by muggers although they were not part of the conservation efforts.