According to the annual reptile census report which concluded on Sunday, The population of saltwater crocodiles in Bhitarkanika National Park in Odisha has registered a sizeable increase this year. this year saw an increase of 44 estuarine crocodiles.
Annual census says confirmed the head-count of estuarine crocodiles at 1742,an increase of 44 more than previous year. the State Forest Department confirmed.
The authorities of Bhitarkanika National Park had carried out the enumeration from Saturday in the creeks, rivers and water bodies located across the four ranges in the park. The forest officials also sighted 12 albino crocodiles during the enumeration process.
“All through the two-day census, we sighted 619 hatchlings, 347 yearlings, 273 juveniles, 178 sub-adults (six to eight feet long) and 325 adults reptiles (more than eight feet long) where as Last year, we had sighted 610 hatchlings, 338 yearlings, 267 juveniles, 172 sub-adults and 311 adults,” said Bimal Prasanna Acharya,the Divisional Forest Officer (DFO) of Bhitarkanika.
Dr Sudhakar Kar, who is a noted herpetologist and former crocodile research officer of Forest department led the team of 20, said, “Gori, the 44-year-old albino crocodile of Bhitarkanika, resides in a pen in the park. But we have also sighted around 12 albino crocodiles and four giant crocodiles, more than 20 feet, in the water bodies of Bhitarkanika.”
Kar appreciated the state governments far-sighted measures that helped out increasing the population of crocodiles. “the Union Ministry of Forest and Environment in association with the UNDP had started a crocodile breeding and rearing project in Dangamala in 1975 within the park. With that, the crocodile population started increasing in the creeks, river and other water bodies of the park and its nearby areas. Nine years back, the Guinness Book of World Records had registered a 23-foot-long saltwater crocodile in Bhitarkanika as the largest crocodile in the world,”Kar added.
It should be noted that the Bhitarkanika National Park authorities had imposed a ban on visitors from January 6th to 14th January to avert noise pollution during the census drive.
