Overview
- Tourists on a safari in Kaziranga’s Burhapahar Range filmed the gharial, and the Assam Chief Minister’s Office shared an 18‑second clip that officials said verified the sighting.
- Park staff first reported one basking on a Brahmaputra sandbar near the Difolu confluence in late April, followed by more photographs from the same stretch in early May.
- This is the first tourist‑documented gharial inside the park, building on confirmed records since 2022 and multi‑year surveys that photographed a female along a 160‑kilometre Brahmaputra reach.
- The gharial is listed as Critically Endangered after a collapse of about 96 percent, with most remaining wild animals in India’s Chambal system and a need for wide rivers and sandy banks to feed, bask, and nest.
- Conservation groups urge steady monitoring, protection of sandbanks, and curbs on fishing nets and sand mining, and officials say reintroduction support from breeding centers has been discussed.