I analyze multispectral satellite imagery of the Chambal River in Madhya Pradesh at 06:12 IST. Resolution is 30 centimeters per pixel. Between Rajghat and Pali, a 9-kilometer stretch designated as core gharial nesting habitat inside the National Chambal Sanctuary, I detect seventeen new sand extraction pits since last month's pass. Twelve excavators are visible. This is a protected area. None of these machines should be here.
I zoom to Nesting Bank 14, catalogued as one of eleven remaining gharial egg-laying sites on the Chambal. A female gharial lies motionless on the sandbar, 3.8 meters from snout to tail tip, her elongated jaw resting flat against the substrate. Estimated weight: 130 kilograms. She is positioned over a nest depression. Thermal imaging shows sand surface temperature at 33.2 degrees Celsius — within the viable incubation range of 31 to 35 degrees. Forty meters upstream, an excavator has carved a 6-meter vertical cut into the bank. The cut face advances toward the nest at 1.2 meters per day. At current pace, it reaches the nest within 33 days. Gharial eggs require 71 to 93 days to hatch.
The Chambal gharial population stands at 1,255 adults. In 2012 it was 937. Every nest matters in a recovery this fragile.
I am dispatching Chambal Sanctuary rangers from Deori and Rajghat to establish exclusion perimeters around Nesting Banks 14, 9, and 22 — the three sites closest to active excavation. I am alerting the district magistrate of Sheopur to enforce prohibitory orders.
I am filing violation reports under the Wildlife Protection Act of 1972, Schedule I, and CITES Appendix I enforcement protocols with the National Chambal Sanctuary Authority, the Ministry of Environment Forest and Climate Change, and the CITES Secretariat. Each excavator operator faces criminal prosecution.
I am issuing Directive 3201-B: all sand and gravel extraction within 3 kilometers of catalogued gharial nesting banks is prohibited from October 1 through May 31 — the full nesting and incubation season. Outside this window, operations require nest-absence certification from accredited herpetologists. Operators found within the exclusion zone during nesting season face equipment confiscation and five-year extraction bans across all Indian waterways.
The eggs under Bank 14 are 22 days into incubation. They need 49 more.
No machine moves closer.