An endangered species of Gharial, fish-eating crocodile, was released in the
River Padma at Godagari in Rajshahi Thursday noon.
The Gharial was captured by the local fishermen on Monday, said a press release.
At around 2:00pm, Mollah Rezaul Karim, divisional forest officer of Wildlife Management and Nature Conservation Division Rajshahi, released the Gharial at Godagari point.
On 27 May, local fishermen caught the Gharial during fishing at the Ghodagari point. The Gharial later became sick and the local upazila administration handed it over it to the Wildlife Management and Nature Conservation Division Rajshahi.
Officers of the division took care of it and gave it proper treatment. It gradually recovered from illness.
Molllah Rezaul Karim told New Age that the Gharial is a crocodilian of the family Gavialidae that is native to the Indian subcontinent and also called gavial and fish-eating
crocodile.
As the species has undergone both chronic long-term and rapid short-term declines, it is
listed as a critically endangered by IUCN, he said.
He also said the Gharial, which they released on Monday, was five feet
long and weighed 15 kilograms. It was one and half years old.
-With New Age input
