In the ongoing nesting season, forest personnel of The Bhitarkanika National Park till Friday evening spotted as many as 62 nests of estuarine crocodiles at the Kanika forest range.
However, not a single nest has been sighted under Rajnagar, Gahirmatha and Mahakalapada ranges, informed Rajnagar Mangrove Forest and Wildlife Division DFO Bimal Prasanna Acharya.
Each nest is enriched with 45 to 60 eggs of crocodiles. The forest personnel were optimistic that some more nests would be sighted in other forest beats under Kanika range soon.
Every year, the forest personnel collect some eggs from the wild nests and the eggs are incubated in captivity under semi-natural conditions. The hatchlings are reared for three years and then released into the wild. By way of ‘rear and release’ technique, the baby crocodiles after birth are released in the wild as a part of conservation programme of the endangered species. The forest personnel have targeted to collect about 50 eggs in coming days from wild nests that are lying vulnerable due to tidal erosion .The eggs would be incubated at the artificial hatchery in Dangamala, stated Kanika Ranger Akhaya Kumar Nayak.
last year, the Kanika range personnel also had collected 47 crocodile eggs from the nests and hatched them artificially at the Dangamala hatchery. As many as 44 hatchlings had come out.
Notably, the Rajnagar mangrove (wildlife) forest division has imposed a three months ban from May 1 to July 31 to count the crocodile nests in the water bodies of Bhitarkanika. Entry is restricted to the crocodile infested areas at Bhitarkanika, Dangamala and Ragadapati forest blocks.