Marauding crocs to keep vigil on mangrove forests
OUR CORRESPONDENT

Taking guard
Bhubaneswar, June 19: They are no Steve Irwins. The next time the poachers are out to plunder the mangrove inside Bhitarkanika wildlife sanctuary, they have to be ultra careful lest they lose a limb or two.

In a unique experiment, the forest department last week set at large 48 crocodiles bred in captivity into the water bodies of Bhitarkanika to ward off human interference into its fast-depleting mangrove forests.

“The fear of marauding crocs who have been seemingly performing the role of “honorary forest guards†in the core area of the wildlife sanctuary, greatly regulates human intrusion. Now the crocs’ habitat is being expanded to areas subjected to wanton tree felling,†forest officials said.

The crocs were released in Kharinasi and Jamboo areas of the sanctuary, said the officials.

These pockets located on the southern-most part of the 672 square-kilometre sanctuary are visibly marked by skeletal forest cover. A number of thickly populated human settlements dot the area within the sanctuary, resulting in rampant felling of mangrove and conversion of green field into paddy and shrimp cultivation.

“We are pressing into service these reptiles for forest conservation. Once the crocs are firmly ensconced in the water inlets, human intrusion would greatly be curtailed. As the people here take the water route to sneak into the forest, we feel the crocs will come in handy to protect the greens,†said Golakh Rout, additional conservator of forest, Rajnagar Mangrove (wildlife) Forest Division.

The mangroves along the Orissa coast are threatened by high density of population and competing demand for land for agriculture and prawn farming. As many as 410 revenue villages comprising two lakh population thrive on the encroached forestland. Most of the settlers are from neighbouring states and Bangladesh.

The mangrove belt in Kendrapada district has been notified as Bhitarkanika sanctuary (672sqkm).

Part of this area (145sqkm) is notified national park.

“In the past, crocs bred in captivity were used to be released in core areas of the sanctuary surrounded by thick mangrove. For a change, we have shifted the release-exercise to areas where mangrove denudation is pronounced due to hectic human interference,†said a forest staff.

Very interesting .It was found in the big tsunami in Indonesia that areas that had the original mangrove forests had little damage . The mangroves absorbed most of the wave energy.Developed areas , stripped of their mangroves were heavily damaged !!!

“We are pressing into service these reptiles for forest conservation."

Very interesting indeed. Where was it in WWII in the Pacific when those Japanese soldiers retreated into the mangrove swamps and the salties got most of them during the night? I remember reading about the US soldiers hearing terrible sounds all night long as the crocs spun in the water with the men in their jaws. Scary stuff.

Just as in most Indian preserves, the people in charge at Bhitarkanika are incompetents and their press releases are always highly suspect. Just a year or so back they had convinced authorities they had photographs of a 23'+ saltwater crocodile (one of reputedly, three or four 20'+ specimens said to inhabit the preserve) only to back off on it, within just a few days.
IMO, the release of these crocodiles will likely serve only to attract the local hide hunters.

A recent attempt at moving crocs away from people in Australia didn't work very well ! They were moved 250 miles but in two weeks they had had returned !!!