For the first time, forest personnel retrieved a 1.5-feet long gharial hatchling from the Paika river near Samajori village of Kendrapada district. The hatchling weighed 230 gram and was less than six months old.
According to Mahakalapada Range Officer Sahaji Kumar Biswal, one Sarada Prasanna Mohanty, a local, was catching fish in the river near Samjori village when he came across the gharial crocodile entangled in his net.
He rescued the gharial and handed over to the Mahakalapada Ranger. “I brought the matter to the notice of the DFO of Rajnagar Dr Jangyadatta Pati and he directed me to hand over the gharial hatchling to the authority of the Nandankanan zoo. So, we handed over the gharial hatchling to the zoo authority," stated Ranger Biswal. The forest personnel apprehend that the gharial might have strayed from its natural habitat from Satakosia in the water of the Mahanadi.