The gharial is one of the most critically endangered crocodilians, reduced to a tiny population in Indian rivers. River degradation, entanglement, and persecution cause welfare harms for surviving individuals.
Individual gharial welfare is affected by net entanglement and drowning, habitat degradation that reduces food availability, and the chronic stress of living in a heavily modified river system with frequent human disturbance. Net entanglement causes traumatic drowning deaths for adults that are irreplaceable given the tiny population size. Hatchlings released from captive breeding programs face high mortality from predation and habitat inadequacy in degraded river sections. Conservation that combines river rehabilitation through reduced sand mining and water extraction, fisheries management that reduces net entanglement, and protection of nesting sites addresses welfare at both individual and population levels. Each adult gharial represents a significant portion of the global population, making individual welfare inseparable from species survival.