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Clueless in Chambal
Author(s):
Kirtiman Awasthi
Issue Date:
2008-2-29
-- (Credit: AGNIMIRH BASU)the mystery of gharial deaths in the Chambal waters continues to elude scientists. More than 90
of the critically endangered species have died since early December, all within a stretch of about 25 km of the river flowing
along the Uttar Pradesh-Madhya Pradesh border. Nobody seems to know the reason. In a January 28 meeting of the Crisis
Management Group, set up by the union government to look into possible causes and draw an action plan, veterinarians and
conservationists could not pinpoint the causes of deaths.
Etawah-based ngo Society for Conservation of Nature reported the first death in the first week
of December 2007. By the end of the month, 40 gharials had died. Alarmed, the forest department sent samples of viscera and
water to the Indian Veterinary Research Institute (ivri) in Bareilly for testing toxins and
disease.
Corridor of uncertainty
All the deaths have occurred in a 25-30 km stretch of the Chambal river
Though most of the gharial carcasses found were partially decomposed, on-the-spot post-mortems revealed liver
cirrhosis, as indicated by scarred and damaged liver. "After death, the carcass first sinks and then surfaces after a few
days; by then it is partially decomposed," says Dhruva J Basu, gharial conservation coordinator at class='UCASE'>wwf India. ivri scientists suspect a protozoan parasite found in viscera
analysis damaged the liver and kidney in gharials. But crocodile experts rule out this possibility. "Protozoan and other
parasites are common in crocodiles and other aquatic reptiles, and do not cause mortalities," says F W Huchzermeyer, a
veterinary consultant and co-chair of veterinary science with the World Conservation Union's Crocodile Specialist Group. R J
Rao, gharial researcher at Jiwaji University in Gwalior, echoed his views.
The ivri report also showed high levels of lead in gharials. It can't be said for
certain if these levels (0.7-1.4 ppm) are fatal. "At this level, lead can act as immunosuppressant but cannot cause
mortality," says D Swarup, scientist at ivri. There is another problem absence of baseline data
for comparison, even after 30 years of conservation. Gharials are found only in India and Nepal. The only comparison for lead
levels right now is with Chinese alligators.
Conservationists say high levels of lead in gharials could be from eating contaminated fish. Water and fish samples
from the Chambal showed high levels of lead for the first time recently; it has no known source of lead. But it meets the
Yamuna 40 km downstream of the affected area. Forest officials say contaminated fish and water could come upstream from the
confluence.
Schedule I funeral for gharials
The lead and protozoan hypotheses debunked, Brian Stacy, veterinary pathologist at University of Florida, class='UCASE'>usa, who carried out an on-the-spot post-mortem of a gharial, says there are indications of gout in
gharials, possibly due to kidney failure. Huchzermeyer says if this is so, it is shocking because kidney infection, and hence
gout, is very rare in gharials. Lala A K Singh, gharial expert of the Orissa forest department, says though gout is uncommon
in natural crocodilian populations, it is common in captive-bred animals. He recalls a 1977 incident when most of the 400
gharial hatchlings brought from Nepal died. The symptoms were similar. Even then, the cause of deaths remained
inconclusive.
Again lack of baseline data comes in the way. Huchzermeyer says he wants to study a live, healthy gharial for having
baseline data but the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972, does not allow this because gharial is a Schedule I species.
On February
2, vets were allowed to collect urine and blood smaples, which won't provide much useful data.
For the time being the scientists are focusing their investigation on diseases. Members of the Crisis
Management Group have ruled out human interference and are not looking at the possibilities of poaching and reduced prey
base. The dead gharials had no signs of external injury and post-mortem results indicated that deaths were not due to
drowning in fishing nets, a common causes of death. Scientists also rule out poisoning of the river because the fish and
other aquatic animals had not died.
Huchzermeyer has another hypothesis "The deaths may have been caused by pansteatitis, a condition
caused by consumption of rotten fish." It has killed South African crocodiles in the past. Pansteatitis causes hardening of
the animal's fat, leading to reduced mobility and death by starvation in six-eight weeks of consuming dead fish. "The
degeneration of the liver tissue caused by this condition can appear similar to the signs of cirrhosis, which may account for
preliminary diagnosis of cirrhosis," says Huchzermeyer.
Rotting fish theory While scientists are busy explaining the disease, villagers have a different
explanation. "They are dying of starvation. Extensive illegal fishing has reduced fish in the river to such an extent that
big gharials are not getting enough food," says a resident of Sahnso village in Etawah. The forest department has confiscated
fishing nets in the region. "I have reports of people blasting under water to kill and catch fish in large numbers," says
Rajeev Chauhan, secretary general of the Society for Conservation of Nature "Gharials might have eaten leftover dead and
rotten fish," he explained. This dovetails with Huchzermeyer's hypothesis.
ivri scientists also found that in most cases the gharial's stomach was empty. But
conservationists rule out starvation, saying there is enough prey base in the river for gharials. Filmmaker Naresh Bedi, who
made the first documentary on gharials, says this claim is not based on studies of the prey base.
It is worth noting that all the deaths occurred between the bridge at Sahnso and Udi village in Etawah. This stretch is part
of the 400 km of the river protected under the National Chambal Sanctuary. "The stretch has a high density of gharials. Due
to illegal fishing and continuous human presence, there is a possibility that gharials are not getting enough time for
basking," says Rom Whitaker, chairman of the Gharial Conservation Alliance, an independent international mission.
On the edge Before this episode, less than 200 breeding gharials were estimated in the wild. Basu points
out that all dead gharials were longer than two metres--mostly breeding animals. Ten were males; gharial populations are
skewed in favour of females, and a small reduction of males can bring them to the brink. Forest officials stress that all the
deaths occurred in the 'natural population', as opposed to captive-bred animals released into the wild. Bedi doubts if there
is a survey to ascertain the number of captive-bred gharials surviving in wild.
The gharial was on the verge of extinction in the 1970s. Since the inception of Project Crocodile in 1975, which included
captive breeding, several thousand captive-bred gharials were released into the wild. Only a few survived (see 'Croc can't go
on', Down To Earth , November 30, 2006). The present crisis questions the knowledge and conservation approach of the
Union Ministry of Environment and Forests, which is again planning to launch a project to conserve gharials, which are on the
iucn Red List.
"This time we will focus on the gharial in its natural habitat rather than going
for captive-breeding," promises Pramod Krishnan, joint director, wildlife, at the ministry.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Source URL: http://www.downtoearth.org.in/node/4193
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Clueless in Chambal
Author(s):
Kirtiman Awasthi
Issue Date:
2008-2-29
-- (Credit: AGNIMIRH BASU)the mystery of gharial deaths in the Chambal waters continues to elude scientists. More than 90
of the critically endangered species have died since early December, all within a stretch of about 25 km of the river flowing
along the Uttar Pradesh-Madhya Pradesh border. Nobody seems to know the reason. In a January 28 meeting of the Crisis
Management Group, set up by the union government to look into possible causes and draw an action plan, veterinarians and
conservationists could not pinpoint the causes of deaths.
Etawah-based ngo Society for Conservation of Nature reported the first death in the first week
of December 2007. By the end of the month, 40 gharials had died. Alarmed, the forest department sent samples of viscera and
water to the Indian Veterinary Research Institute (ivri) in Bareilly for testing toxins and
disease.
Corridor of uncertainty
All the deaths have occurred in a 25-30 km stretch of the Chambal river
Though most of the gharial carcasses found were partially decomposed, on-the-spot post-mortems revealed liver
cirrhosis, as indicated by scarred and damaged liver. "After death, the carcass first sinks and then surfaces after a few
days; by then it is partially decomposed," says Dhruva J Basu, gharial conservation coordinator at class='UCASE'>wwf India. ivri scientists suspect a protozoan parasite found in viscera
analysis damaged the liver and kidney in gharials. But crocodile experts rule out this possibility. "Protozoan and other
parasites are common in crocodiles and other aquatic reptiles, and do not cause mortalities," says F W Huchzermeyer, a
veterinary consultant and co-chair of veterinary science with the World Conservation Union's Crocodile Specialist Group. R J
Rao, gharial researcher at Jiwaji University in Gwalior, echoed his views.
The ivri report also showed high levels of lead in gharials. It can't be said for
certain if these levels (0.7-1.4 ppm) are fatal. "At this level, lead can act as immunosuppressant but cannot cause
mortality," says D Swarup, scientist at ivri. There is another problem absence of baseline data
for comparison, even after 30 years of conservation. Gharials are found only in India and Nepal. The only comparison for lead
levels right now is with Chinese alligators.
Conservationists say high levels of lead in gharials could be from eating contaminated fish. Water and fish samples
from the Chambal showed high levels of lead for the first time recently; it has no known source of lead. But it meets the
Yamuna 40 km downstream of the affected area. Forest officials say contaminated fish and water could come upstream from the
confluence.
Schedule I funeral for gharials
The lead and protozoan hypotheses debunked, Brian Stacy, veterinary pathologist at University of Florida, class='UCASE'>usa, who carried out an on-the-spot post-mortem of a gharial, says there are indications of gout in
gharials, possibly due to kidney failure. Huchzermeyer says if this is so, it is shocking because kidney infection, and hence
gout, is very rare in gharials. Lala A K Singh, gharial expert of the Orissa forest department, says though gout is uncommon
in natural crocodilian populations, it is common in captive-bred animals. He recalls a 1977 incident when most of the 400
gharial hatchlings brought from Nepal died. The symptoms were similar. Even then, the cause of deaths remained
inconclusive.
Again lack of baseline data comes in the way. Huchzermeyer says he wants to study a live, healthy gharial for having
baseline data but the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972, does not allow this because gharial is a Schedule I species.
On February
2, vets were allowed to collect urine and blood smaples, which won't provide much useful data.
For the time being the scientists are focusing their investigation on diseases. Members of the Crisis
Management Group have ruled out human interference and are not looking at the possibilities of poaching and reduced prey
base. The dead gharials had no signs of external injury and post-mortem results indicated that deaths were not due to
drowning in fishing nets, a common causes of death. Scientists also rule out poisoning of the river because the fish and
other aquatic animals had not died.
Huchzermeyer has another hypothesis "The deaths may have been caused by pansteatitis, a condition
caused by consumption of rotten fish." It has killed South African crocodiles in the past. Pansteatitis causes hardening of
the animal's fat, leading to reduced mobility and death by starvation in six-eight weeks of consuming dead fish. "The
degeneration of the liver tissue caused by this condition can appear similar to the signs of cirrhosis, which may account for
preliminary diagnosis of cirrhosis," says Huchzermeyer.
Rotting fish theory While scientists are busy explaining the disease, villagers have a different
explanation. "They are dying of starvation. Extensive illegal fishing has reduced fish in the river to such an extent that
big gharials are not getting enough food," says a resident of Sahnso village in Etawah. The forest department has confiscated
fishing nets in the region. "I have reports of people blasting under water to kill and catch fish in large numbers," says
Rajeev Chauhan, secretary general of the Society for Conservation of Nature "Gharials might have eaten leftover dead and
rotten fish," he explained. This dovetails with Huchzermeyer's hypothesis.
ivri scientists also found that in most cases the gharial's stomach was empty. But
conservationists rule out starvation, saying there is enough prey base in the river for gharials. Filmmaker Naresh Bedi, who
made the first documentary on gharials, says this claim is not based on studies of the prey base.
It is worth noting that all the deaths occurred between the bridge at Sahnso and Udi village in Etawah. This stretch is part
of the 400 km of the river protected under the National Chambal Sanctuary. "The stretch has a high density of gharials. Due
to illegal fishing and continuous human presence, there is a possibility that gharials are not getting enough time for
basking," says Rom Whitaker, chairman of the Gharial Conservation Alliance, an independent international mission.
On the edge Before this episode, less than 200 breeding gharials were estimated in the wild. Basu points
out that all dead gharials were longer than two metres--mostly breeding animals. Ten were males; gharial populations are
skewed in favour of females, and a small reduction of males can bring them to the brink. Forest officials stress that all the
deaths occurred in the 'natural population', as opposed to captive-bred animals released into the wild. Bedi doubts if there
is a survey to ascertain the number of captive-bred gharials surviving in wild.
The gharial was on the verge of extinction in the 1970s. Since the inception of Project Crocodile in 1975, which included
captive breeding, several thousand captive-bred gharials were released into the wild. Only a few survived (see 'Croc can't go
on', Down To Earth , November 30, 2006). The present crisis questions the knowledge and conservation approach of the
Union Ministry of Environment and Forests, which is again planning to launch a project to conserve gharials, which are on the
iucn Red List.
"This time we will focus on the gharial in its natural habitat rather than going
for captive-breeding," promises Pramod Krishnan, joint director, wildlife, at the ministry.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Source URL: http://www.downtoearth.org.in/node/4193