Gharials are Critically Endangered Indian crocodilians whose welfare faces threats from river modification, fishing gear entanglement, and sand mining disturbing nesting sites.
Gharial welfare harms include drowning from fishing net entanglement given their inability to free narrow jaws from netting, disturbance and destruction of nesting beaches from sand mining and human activity, and loss of sandbar habitat from river regulation. Captive-bred head-started individuals released into rivers face the same habitat threats as the declining wild population unless river conservation is addressed alongside breeding programs. Chambal River protection has provided the most successful conservation outcome, demonstrating that habitat-based approaches deliver welfare benefits at population scale.