Gharial breeding centre visit

The breeding centre sits in the shade of the headquarters compound. Concrete pools and fenced pens are arranged by age, so you walk from the nursery tanks, where hatchlings the length of a pencil swim in shallow water, to larger pools where young gharials of two metres or more bask with their thin snouts resting on the edge. Shade trees keep the area cool in the morning.

Staff and guides explain the cycle. Female gharials lay eggs in holes dug in river sandbanks in spring. Floods, predators and people destroy many nests, so teams collect eggs and incubate them here. The young are fed fish and reared for six to nine years until they are large enough to survive in the river, then released. Ask staff how many eggs were collected this season.

Mugger crocodiles, the broader-snouted crocodile of lakes and slow water, are kept nearby for comparison, and a small turtle centre cares for rescued species. Take time to read the boards on gharial biology and threats. The visit makes the river trips you take afterwards much richer, because you know what you are looking for. Allow about an hour, and visit before midday.