Status
Critically Endangered
Habitat
Fast-flowing river with deep pools and sandbanks
Range
India
Group
Reptiles
A crocodilian that evolved into a specialist and got trapped there.
The snout is absurdly narrow because it is a fish-catching instrument: minimal water resistance, snapped sideways with great speed. It is also useless for anything else, which is the problem when the fish go.
Dams, sand mining and net entanglement have reduced the range to fragments — the Chambal above all. It is one of the few large animals whose survival depends almost entirely on the condition of a single river system.
Frames in the archive
Full gallery
The Ghara
Chambal, drifting — engine off.
Where we photograph it
The open shelf
More frames of the gharial
Streamed live from the Commons Quality Images archive, fifteen at a time. For viewing here — each frame remains its photographer’s.
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Developing the next fifteen…
