During the ongoing nesting season, forest personnel have so far spotted 75 nests of estuarine crocodiles at the Kanika, Mahakalpada and Rajnagar wildlife forest range divisions under the Bhitarkanika National park, said Rajnagar DFO Bimal Prasanna Acharya.
He, however, state that not a single nest has been sighted anywhere under the Gahirmatha Forest Range till date.
Of 75 nests found under Bhitarkanika National Park, while five were sighted in Rajnagar forest range, one spotted in Mahakalpada and the rest 69 nests were found in Kanika forest area. The Dangamala Crocodile Research Centre, which comes under the Kanika range, has five nests. Each nest was found with 45 to 60 eggs.
last year, 68 such nests had been found in Rajnagar mangrove division, 63 in Kanika range wildlife range, three in Rajnagar wildlife range and two had been found in Mahakalpada wildlife range.
As per conservation programme, forest personnel collect some eggs from the wild nests and incubate them under semi-natural conditions. The hatchlings are reared for three years and then released into the wild.
Kanika forest staff have collected 42 eggs from wild nests that are laying vulnerable due to tidal erosion. The eggs have been kept in the artificial hatchery at the Dangamal Crocodile Breeding and Research Centre, informed, Kanika Ranger Akhaya Kumar Nayak.
Crocodile lay eggs by creating nests with mangrove leaves .Generally hatchlings emerge from the nests after a gap of about 60 to 70 days. The female crocodiles, which are 14 feet in length, lay 50 to 60 eggs and longer ones lay more eggs. While an average of 10 per cent ages are destroyed by predators, 50 per cent don’t hatch and hatchlings emerge from 20- 30 per cent nests.
Notably, the Rajnagar mangrove division has imposed a three-month ban from May 1 to July 31 to count the crocodile nests in the water bodies of the Bhitarkanika National Park and nearby rivers.
As many as 1,671 estuarine crocodiles, including reptiles measuring more than 20 feet, are found in the Bhitarkanika area now.