South Asia’s crocodilians increased during pandemic, but human-croc conflict needs to be addressed, Anslem de Silva told DTE
Basking gharials. Photo: iStock Experts have called for countries in southern Asia to pool in efforts to conserve the region’s three crocodilians, especially the critically endangered gharial (Gavialis gangeticus). The species was once found in Pakistan, India, Bhutan, Nepal and Bangladesh, in the Indus and Ganga-Brahmaputra river systems, but has been locally extinct in much of these areas.
The gharial is currently found mostly in the Ganga basin of northern India, southern Nepal and Bangladesh, as well as the Mahanadi river in Odisha.
“Nepal considers that gharial conservation needs to be done together with range countries. I hope that the respective countries will consider this seriously on World Crocodile Day,” Anslem de Silva, regional chairman for south Asia and Iran, IUCN/SSC Crocodile Specialist Group (CSG), told DTE from Sri Lanka.
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Raju Vyas, Vadodara-based herpetologist and crocodilian expert, agreed. He cited the Thirteenth Conference of Parties (CoP) of the United Nations Environment Programme’s (UNEP) Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals’ (CMS), which was held in Gandhinagar in 2020.
“Transboundary cooperation is very much possible and needed in south Asia. The gharial, along with the Ganges dolphin, was on the agenda of the CMS CoP13. Representatives of countries from the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation had accepted that there should be more joint efforts,” Vyas told DTE.
Indeed, five species of turtles and the gharial and saltwater crocodile, are among the seven CMS species found in India.
The architect of the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972, MK Ranjitsinh, as well as Odisha-based herpetologist Sudhakar Kar also voiced support for such cooperation to DTE. However, Kar added a caveat: “Transboundary cooperation on the gharial should be habitat-based,” he said.
“India has already been cooperating with Nepal on the gharials of the Gandak for sometime now. Bhutan has recently released some gharials in the Manas. Similar models can be looked into this case too.
“There should be information exchange wherever there is transboundary movement of animals. Management can be looked into after that,” BC Choudhary, a member of the CSG and advisor to the Wildlife Trust of India, a non-profit, told DTE.
Sand mining, discharge of untreated domestic sewage and industrial effluents and illegal fishing still remain a major challenge to gharial conservation across southern Asia.
Human-croc conflict
DTE also spoke to the experts about human-crocodilian conflict in India and other south Asian countries.
A comprehensive Mugger Action Plan to mitigate human-mugger conflict in south Asia and Iran will be launched at a forthcoming meeting of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN)’s Crocodile Specialist Group (CSG) in Mexico next month, according to de Silva.
The mugger or marsh crocodile (Crocodylus palustris) is found in India, Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and south-east Iran. It is responsible for the third-highest number of fatal attacks on humans by a crocodilian species, after the Saltwater and Nile crocodile, according to crocodilian researcher, Brandon Sideleau.
“During the Mexico meeting, a comprehensive Mugger Action Plan by Colin Stevenson, with inputs from me and vice chairs and other mugger researchers in the region, will be launched,” de Silva said.
The IUCN/SSC Crocodile Specialist Group is meeting in Chetumal, in the Mexican state of Quintana Roo, from July 3-9, 2022. De Silva plans to suggest measures at the meeting to mitigate human-crocodilian conflict, especially in south Asia.
“Crocodile exclusion enclosures should be installed at water bodies that they inhabit. This will save humans as well as crocodiles,” he said.
De Silva added that nuisance-causing crocodiles should be identified and captured by training and equipping a ‘crocodile squad’ for rapid response. “A proper guide should be formulated for the capture and translocation of large and problematic (nuisance) crocodiles,” he said.
Also, a protocol for autopsy and postmortem procedures should be formulated in cases of suspicious deaths of crocodiles, such as instances of poisoning and grievous injuries caused after capture, he said.
But are these measures feasible on the ground? Odisha and Sri Lanka do practice the method of making an enclosure at bathing ghats by driving stakes in the river bed and covering it with mesh, to protect against attacks from saltwater crocodiles.
But saltwater crocodiles are found only in the Sundarbans (shared by India and Bangladesh), the Bhitarkanika National Park in Odisha and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, besdies Sri Lanka in south Asia.
Should such enclosures be used for preventing mugger attacks as well, especially in Indian states such as Gujarat and Uttar Pradesh, where they are high? “Yes, they can be used. In fact, the forest department does make such enclosures wherever possible. Mortality due to mugger attacks usually happens in the most poor and marginalised areas of India. These measures can help,” Vyas said.
According to Choudhary, such enclosures are already in place in Gujarat, the state with the highest number of mugger attacks on humans in India. He said the measures suggested by de Silva were common to all crocodilian species. At the same time, he pointed out that human-mugger conflict in India was not that high or serious as compared to human-saltie conflict.
Ranjitsinh and Kar too agreed that the mugger was not as big a problem as the saltie. “The species can become a problem if humans do not stop actions such as the dumping of offal in the waters they live in,” Choudhary said.
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