Gharials (Gavialis gangeticus) are critically endangered crocodilians reduced to a tiny wild population in the Chambal River system, facing ongoing threats from sand mining, fishing gear entanglement, and habitat modification.
Gharials entangled in fishing nets drown over minutes in air-breathing animals unable to surface — a death involving hypoxia and physical struggle against the restraining net. Nesting females whose eggs are lost to sand mining operations or flooding caused by modified river hydrology experience reproductive failure after months of investment in nest site selection and incubation. The small and declining population means each individual has irreplaceable conservation value, making individual welfare harms also population-level threats. Captive breeding programs that have released thousands of hatchlings are genuine welfare-positive interventions, but survival of released animals depends on adequate protection of river habitat from the ongoing threats of sand mining and fishing gear.