About the Chambal
The Chambal is India's most ecologically intact major river — a paradox explained by its historical reputation as the heartland of dacoits and outlaws, which kept human settlement and agriculture away from its banks for centuries. The 400-kilometre national chambal sanctuary along its ravine-lined course is now home to the world's largest surviving gharial population (over 1600 individuals), the world's largest mugger crocodile concentration, and thousands of Gangetic river dolphins. The dramatic ravines (beehad) of the Chambal valley — carved up to 30 metres into the Vindhyan sandstone — are one of central India's most striking landscapes.
The Chambal's relative freedom from agriculture and settlement has made it a Noah's Ark for species that have vanished from every other major Indian river. The Indian skimmer — one of India's rarest birds, which skims the water's surface with its lower mandible to catch fish — nests on the Chambal's sandy islands in the hundreds. The Phoolan Devi legend was born in these ravines, and the landscape still has a wild, lawless character that has, ironically, been its best ecological protection.
Banas · Kali Sindh · Parbati · Mej