At least two saltwater crocodiles (Crocodylus porosus) have been sighted in the State coast within a month indicating migration of the species from the Odisha coast. A sub-adult crocodile sighted on the Machilipatnam coast on November 23 and another one on the Srikakulam coast early November had been recovered by the wildlife authorities from the local communities and shifted to the Indira Gandhi Zoological Park (IGZP) in Visakhapatnam.
District Forest Officer N. Rama Chandra Rao and IGZP Curator R. Yesoda Bai told The Hindu that there was no record of such sightings in the Krishna-Guntur and the North Andhra coastal belt.
‘Isolated instance’
“These two crocodiles might have arrived through flood water. However, they were isolated sightings,” said Ms. Yesoda Bai.
The two crocodiles are healthy and are awaiting to be shifted to the Bhitarkanika National Park (BNP), Odisha, a home for them. “A letter for shifting them to the BNP has been sent to the Chief Wildlife Warden (Andhra Pradesh) and the BNP authorities,” Ms. Yesoda Bai said over phone. In the case of the one sighted on the Machilipatnam coast, it had returned from the sea after it was released into the Bay of Bengal in an undisclosed location, prompting the forest authorities to send it to the IGZP. It survived the nearly 10-hour road journey during the shifting from Machilipatnam to Visakhapatnam.
Andhra University (Visakhapatnam) Zoology Department Retired Professor D.E. Babu said the Chilka lake and the BNP were contiguous to the Andhra coast and the reasons for the presence must be scientifically investigated.
In India, the BNP, the Sundarbans and the Andaman & Nicobar Islands are the prime habitats of the saltwater crocodile.
“The estimated number of the saltwater crocodiles increased from 96 in 1976 to 1,640 in 2012 in India due to the rear and release programme established under the Indian Crocodile Conservation Project. There have been reports of 131 attacks of the saltwater crocodile in Bangladesh, India and Sri Lanka between 2009 and 2014 May,” according to a research paper titled Human-Crocodile conflict in South Asia and Iran authored by four researchers including Conservation Biologist Tharun Nair of India.
