BHUBANESWAR: In a rare sighting, an 11-foot-long gharial was spotted in the Puri canal near Hansapal on the outskirts of the city on Friday. A large number of people thronged the Hansapal bridge for a view of the crocodile in the water below before it was captured by a team of from Nandankanan Zoological Park (NZP) and local fishermen. The reptile will be released in the Mahanadi upstream soon, forest officials said.
It was first spotted three days ago but remained untraceable as its satellite transmitter did not emit signal since the reptile was deep underwater. However, its clear sighting prompted the rescue operation. Nandankanan deputy director Sanjeet Kumar said, the gharial had to be rescued as it was in danger from the human population along the canal.
“Presence of a gharial in the canal has been reported after a gap of 27 years. The last time any gharial spotted in Puri Canal was way back in 1994. Unfortunately, the reptile was beaten to death by locals. Since then, there has been no reporting of the threatened species in the canal,” said Kumar.
Kumar said the rescued gharial was one of the six satellite transmitter-tagged crocodiles the zoo had released in Mahanadi between December and February as part of the species recovery project. It was found 145 km downstream of Sunakhalia, the place where it had been released in December last year.
Forest officials suspect that the crocodile might have swam its way into the canal via Mundali in search of good prey density. However, in the absence of any female gharial, the canal will not be helpful in breeding. “We will re-release the male reptile in Mahanadi soon,” Kumar said.
Meanwhile, sources said the NZP authorities have floated the tender for purchase of cost-effective GPS transmitters to be used for the release of more number of gharials in Mahanadi river.