{"id":433908,"date":"2026-05-09T21:00:07","date_gmt":"2026-05-09T21:00:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/433908\/"},"modified":"2026-05-09T21:00:07","modified_gmt":"2026-05-09T21:00:07","slug":"watch-critically-endangered-gharial-spotted-at-assams-kaziranga-in-a-first-for-tourists","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/433908\/","title":{"rendered":"Watch: Critically endangered gharial spotted at Assam&#8217;s Kaziranga in a first for tourists"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Once believed to have vanished from Assam&#8217;s rivers, the critically endangered gharial has made a stunning reappearance.<\/p>\n<p>On May 8, 2026, tourists on an early-morning safari in the Burhapahar Range of Kaziranga National Park and Tiger Reserve spotted and filmed the reptile swimming in a river stretch near Dipholu Camp.<\/p>\n<p>Travel guide Shishukanta Nath and tourist Diganta Kumar Sarma captured the footage.<\/p>\n<p>The gharial&#8217;s extraordinarily slender snout is built for catching fish underwater. Adult males also grow a distinctive bulbous growth at the tip, called a ghara, which is used to produce sounds during courtship. (Photo: X\/@CMOfficeAssam)\n<\/p>\n<p>The Chief Minister&#8217;s Office of Assam later shared an 18-second video of the animal on microblogging platform X, showing its long, unmistakable snout cutting through the water.<\/p>\n<p>Forest officials confirmed the sighting. Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma<a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/cmofficeassam\/status\/2053016254982566205\" rel=\"nofollow \"> described it<\/a> as a &#8220;truly remarkable moment for wildlife conservation.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>WHAT MAKES THE GHARIAL SO SPECIAL?<\/p>\n<p>The gharial (Gavialis gangeticus), sometimes called the fish-eating crocodile, is unlike any other crocodilian on the planet.<\/p>\n<p>Its snout is extraordinarily long and slender, almost needle-like, shaped perfectly for slicing through water and snapping up fish. That is essentially all it eats.<\/p>\n<p>It is almost entirely piscivorous, which means fish make up nearly its entire diet.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\" xml:lang=\"en\">Once believed to have disappeared from Assam\u2019s river systems, the critically endangered gharial has now been spotted at Kaziranga, a truly remarkable moment for wildlife conservation.<\/p>\n<p>For tourists and forest officials alike, this was more than just a rare sighting. It was a <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/WzIOZJGRuX\" rel=\"nofollow \">pic.twitter.com\/WzIOZJGRuX<\/a>\u2014 Chief Minister Assam (@CMOfficeAssam) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/CMOfficeAssam\/status\/2053016254982566205?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow  noopener\" target=\"_blank\">May 9, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Adult males grow a distinctive, pot-like fleshy growth at the very tip of their snout.<\/p>\n<p>This is called a ghara, the Hindi word for pot, and it is used to produce buzzing sounds and bubbles during courtship.<\/p>\n<p>The species is listed as Critically Endangered on the<a href=\"https:\/\/www.iucnredlist.org\/species\/8966\/3146967\" rel=\"nofollow  noopener\" target=\"_blank\"> IUCN Red List<\/a>, one step away from extinction in the wild.<\/p>\n<p>A gharial, the critically endangered fish-eating crocodilian known for its needle-thin snout, feeds in its enclosure at Nahargarh Biological Park near Jaipur, Rajasthan. (Photo: PTI)\n<\/p>\n<p>Its global wild population has collapsed by nearly 96 per cent since the mid-20th century, shrinking from thousands of individuals to just a few hundred mature ones.<\/p>\n<p>Today, between 80 and 85 per cent of surviving gharials are confined to the Chambal River system in central India.<\/p>\n<p>The species now occupies roughly 2 per cent of its historical range.<\/p>\n<p>WHY IS THE KAZIRANGA SIGHTING SUCH A BIG DEAL?<\/p>\n<p>This is the first time tourists have visually documented a gharial inside Kaziranga.<\/p>\n<p>Previous sightings were recorded only by survey teams and officials.<\/p>\n<p>The first confirmed record in the national park dates to March 2022, when a gharial was photographed on a sandbar in the Brahmaputra River at Silghat.<\/p>\n<p>The first confirmed gharial record in Kaziranga came in March 2022, when one was photographed on a sandbar in the Brahmaputra at Silghat. The May 2026 sighting in the Burhapahar Range is the first ever documented by tourists. (Photo: X\/@CMOfficeAssam)\n<\/p>\n<p>Since then, recurring sightings have been reported in the Bishwanath stretch of the Brahmaputra.<\/p>\n<p>A January 2024 survey by the Biswanath Wildlife Division and the Turtle Survival Alliance confirmed the presence of a female gharial across a 160-kilometre stretch of the river.<\/p>\n<p>Kaziranga is home to more than 42 species of fish, making it an exceptionally suitable long-term habitat for the species.<\/p>\n<p>HOW CAN GHARIAL BE SAVED?<\/p>\n<p>Conservation experts say long-term monitoring, protection of sandbanks where gharials bask and nest, and reducing threats from fishing nets, sand mining, and river modification are essential.<\/p>\n<p>Experts note the sighting confirms the premise to restore the species with sustained protection.<\/p>\n<p>For now, though, this quiet moment on a morning safari is proof that conservation, even when slow and silent, can work.<\/p>\n<p>&#8211; Ends<\/p>\n<p>Published By: <\/p>\n<p>Radifah Kabir<\/p>\n<p>Published On: <\/p>\n<p>May 9, 2026 22:27 IST<\/p>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Once believed to have vanished from Assam&#8217;s rivers, the critically endangered gharial has made a stunning reappearance. On&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":433909,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[203493,203499,121743,203502,203495,203498,203494,203496,242,203504,203500,203491,203501,203511,203510,203508,203497,203505,50240,85,46,203503,203492,203507,203506,141,29210,203509],"class_list":["post-433908","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-assam-rivers","tag-assam-wildlife-2026","tag-brahmaputra-river","tag-brahmaputra-river-gharial","tag-burhapahar-range","tag-critically-endangered-gharial","tag-critically-endangered-reptile","tag-dipholu-camp","tag-environment","tag-fish-eating-crocodile-india","tag-gavialis-gangeticus","tag-gharial","tag-gharial-conservation-india","tag-gharial-endangered-species","tag-gharial-habitat-india","tag-gharial-population-decline","tag-gharial-sighting","tag-gharial-spotted-assam","tag-himanta-biswa-sarma","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-iucn-red-list-gharial","tag-kaziranga-national-park","tag-kaziranga-wildlife-news","tag-rare-crocodile-sighting-india","tag-science","tag-wildlife-conservation","tag-wildlife-conservation-assam"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/433908","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=433908"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/433908\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/433909"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=433908"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=433908"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=433908"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}