BHUBANESWAR - The population of saltwater crocodiles in Orissa’s Bhitarkanika National Park, the world’s largest rookery of Olive Ridley turtles, has gone up to 1,572 this year from 1,498 in January 2008. In 2006, the Guinness Book of World Records adjudged a 23-foot-long saltwater crocodile from Bhitarkanika the biggest crocodile in the world.
The annual census in the park, some 170 km from state capital Bhubaneswar, was conducted during Jan 12-18 this year, jointly by wildlife department officials and NGO representatives.
‘We used non-mechanised boats to conduct the exercise. We also used GPS (Global Positioning System) to track the crocodiles,’ Sudhakar Kar, a crocodile researcher in the state’s wildlife department, told IANS.
The 1,572 crocodiles consisted of 538 hatchlings, 374 yearlings, 256 juveniles, 144 sub-adults and 260 adults. There were two giant crocodiles measuring more than 20 feet each, Kar added.
Bhitarkanika, in the coastal district of Kendrapada, is also famous for attracting a large number of migratory birds every winter.
In 1975, the forest and environment ministry of the state in collaboration with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) had started a crocodile breeding and rearing project in the park.
Filed under Crocodile, India, News, turtle | Tags: Bhubaneswar | Comment Below
Related?
Lovable Pet Seized: Just A Five Feet Long CrocodileOctober 25th, 2005 The Forest Department seized a five feet crocodile from a woman who was keeping it as a pet at her house near Karur(Tamilnadu) , last night. The woman had kept the reptile, in a special water tank for the past two years.
Crocodile caught from a school in Uttar PradeshAugust 1st, 2009 DHANKURA - Wildlife authorities on Friday caught a crocodile after the reptile entered a school in Dhankura village of Uttar Pradesh.. The five-feet-long reptile had sneaked into the premises of Saint Maria Inter College.
Orissa factory turns lights off to let turtles breedFebruary 16th, 2009 BHUBANESWAR - A chemical factory in Orissa has been keeping dozens of halogens lights switched off for the past two days to ensure mass nesting of endangered Olive Ridley turtles in a nearby beach, an official said Tuesday. Jayashree Chemicals, which is four kilometres from the nesting site of turtles in Ganjam district, decided to switch of the lights on the advice of wildlife officials.
Missing 5-year-old may have been taken by crocodileFebruary 7th, 2009 SYDNEY - The family of a five-year-old who went missing Sunday in far-north Queensland while out with his seven-year-old brother fears he may have been taken by a crocodile. The police said the boy jumped into the Daintree River to rescue his dog, but disappeared under the water.
Scientists construct first ever genetic linkage map for saltwater crocodileJuly 29th, 2009 WASHINGTON - A team of scientists has constructed a first-generation genetic linkage map for the saltwater crocodile Crocodylus porosus. Dr Lee Miles, from the University of Sydney, worked with a team of Australian and international researchers to study a population of saltwater crocodiles from the Darwin Crocodile Farm in the Northern Territory.
Escaped crocodile attacks toddler in VietnamMarch 23rd, 2009 HANOI - A mother narrowly rescued her one-year-old son from an attack by a crocodile that had escaped from a nearby farm, a police officer in Vietnam's Mekong delta said Monday. The woman was holding her son over a canal to relieve himself Sunday when the 100-kg crocodile leapt out of the water and snapped at the child's foot.
Nepal tries to solve mystery of missing gharialsFebruary 9th, 2009 KATHMANDU - In 2005, nearly 700 gharials, members of the crocodile family, were released in the Narayani and other major rivers of Nepal to boost the population of an endangered species whose number worldwide is estimated to be now less than 2,000. However, three years later, instead of showing a growth in population, the Gavialis gangeticus, the crocodile with the characteristic long narrow snout, now numbers around 80, creating alarm among conservationists in the Himalayan republic.
Giant crocodile captured by fearless Sri Lankan youthsFebruary 24th, 2009 COLOMBO - A huge 16.5 foot (about 5.03 metre) crocodile weighing up to 1,000 kg has been captured in Sri Lanka, a newspaper said. The Daily Mirror said Monday the giant crocodile was captured Sunday by residents in Hendala, around 20 km north of here.