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VANISHING GHARIALS! The Indian gharial today is 20 times more endangered than the tiger.

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Chambal Wildlife Sanctuary (Madhya Pradesh): The Indian gharial (Gavialis gangeticus) - a species of crocodile - is today as endangered as the tiger, maybe 20 times more so.

Their numbers have shrunk from 1,200 in 1983 to an alarming 200. So what happened to the thousands of gharials that were bred and released in the wild?

CNN-IBN's Special Investigation team found a trail of neglect in National Chambal Wildlife Sanctuary (NCS), once home to the largest populations of the gharial.

Rampant sand mining - strictly prohibited in the sanctuary - continues unabated.

CNN-IBN: Yeh kya kar rahe hain? Permission hai apke pas? (What are you doing? Do you have a permit for sand-mining?)

Sand mining contractor: Nahi permission to nahi hai. Hum isse char sau rupay ke theke par bechte hai. (No, we do not have a permit, but we sell these for Rs 100.)

The sand mining contractor then sped away, in a hurry to escape the camera.

Sand-mining is an organised plunder of NCS. The sand is being taken away from here and being sold in the markets - the same sand in which the gharials lay their eggs.

Agriculture along the sandbanks, which is prohibited in the sanctuary, too, is a threat to these creatures.

And sand pits are wreaking havoc for the gharials. Many of the farmers plant their cash crops in sandbanks and the gharials that come out from the Chambal waters have no space to lay their eggs.

Sand-mining contracts are given out on the entire stretch of the river. Fishing inside the Chambal Wildlife Sanctuary, prohibited under the Wildlife Protection Act, continues unabated.

And when gharials get entangled in their fishing nets, the reptiles are killed by the fishermen.

And now a flood water diversion channel to be built by the Rajasthan government on the River Chambal at Kota, may speed up their extinction.

A letter in CNN-IBN's possession shows that the Environment Ministry had asked for the Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) to be done by a committee of experts.

Instead of following orders, a Mumbai based private company - MWH - was given the task and strangely, the EIA which was prepared just does not mention the impact on the gharials or the heavy siltation which will choke the river.

There's an uneasy calm in Chambal Wildlife Sanctuary. In a few weeks from now the breeding season will start. Will this complete the cycle of life for the gharial or is this the end of the road for the species?