| Captive Breeding/Restocking |
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| Captive breeding of gharials has been successful; however dwindling wild populations despite the release of thousands of captive-bred gharials indicate that restocking programs is not the solution to the population decline at this stage. Unless the factors that are causing the decline are resolved releasing gharial into the wild is only sending gharials to their death. |
| The GCA believes that first priority should be to resolve the threats to gharials. If the problems causing the decline are removed wild populations should recover automatically. |
| Restocking may be beneficial in areas where gharials historically existed but are now extinct, but only if the conditions are deemed suitable for gharials in those areas. Some possible areas for future restocking are the Brahmaputra, Indus, and Irrawady river systems. |
| Conditions for Restocking Programs |
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Habitat Suitability |
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Must be within Protected Area |
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History of gharials in the area |
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Adequate fish stocks |
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Deep water (year round) |
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Nesting and basking sites |
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Absence of or minimal human conflict |
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No gill-netting |
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Acceptance of gharials by local people |
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Adequate and Acceptable water levels year-round |
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Dams, tapping for irrigation, and future development of irrigation projects must be considered on the scale of 20-50 years |
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Monsoonal flush must not be so intense that it would flush released gharial out of the protected area. |
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