Some fishermen netted the 102cm-long juvenile, believed to be less than a year old, on January 1 from the Padma of Nagarghat on the outskirts of Rajshahi city.

Informed after 15 days, zoologists of Rajshahi University Prof M Altaf Hossain, Dr Abdul Mannan and Dr Selina Parveen purchased the Gharial at Tk 500 from Abdullah, a fisherman who was rearing it in a ditch at Nagarghat.

"The accidental capture significantly indicates that the fish-eating reptiles are still surviving here," Prof Altaf Hossain said.

RU zoologists wondered these reptiles were surviving amidst massive sand-mining, human disturbances, intense fishing, siltation and pollution.

The Padma basin stretching from Godagari to Char Diar Khidirpur and Yusufpur in Rajshahi was virtually a breeding place for Gharials, which were regularly seen nesting on the banks till the late 80s and early 90s.

The RU zoologists have kept the latest found Gharial at their departmental Aqua Laboratory and were having problems rearing it.

"We cannot keep it at our Aqua Lab long as our research works will start in March. We will leave it with Rajshahi Zoo or any other wildlife organisation for proper conservation," said Prof Altaf.

"The creature is feigning dead in human presence, but it is eating only living fish," said Prof Abdul Mannan.

It has dark spots and cross-stripes against a light grey background. Its eyes are green, frosted with black. It also has its unique, long and slender snout and needle-sharp interlocking teeth.

The Gharial existed for 2,000 million years and is classified in its own taxonomic subfamily, Gavialis (Hindi word ghariyal or crocodile) gangeticus (of the Ganges River), said Prof Altaf.

Now it has been included in the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red Data Book for endangered species headed for extinction, it was learnt from the Internet.

Only a handful Gharials survive in neighbouring Nepal, while in Pakistan, Burma and Bangladesh, the species has been all but wiped out, wrote Damandeep Singh on the National Geographic website.

Observation and surveys by local wildlife experts Dr Ali Reza Khan, AW Akhond, Dr Farid Ahsan, Mizan Rashid and others have it that the Gharial population in Bangladesh rivers has declined.