Last week while on board a flight to Guwahati, a message alert flashed on my mobile. I was pleasantly surprised to have received an SMS from Prof B C Choudhary, former Vice Chair of IUCN Species Survival Commission’s Crocodile Specialist Group and Coordinator of National Crocodile Conservation Project at the Wildlife Institute of India.
Three hours later as I walked through the exit of Lokpriya Gopinath Bordoloi international airport; Prof B C Choudhary called me again on my phone. In his inimitable conversational style, he suggested that during his recent visit to Goa, he had spent time observing crocodiles in protected areas of Bondla and Chorao and wondered if there could be a scientific assessment of the population of this reptile across the state. To my joy, he suggested that he was keen on including me in his team along with Dr Gowri Mallapur, a member of the IUCN-SSC crocodile specialist group and an honorary consultant with the Turtle Survival Alliance (India) Program, Sujit Kumar Dongre of the Centre for Environmental Education and Asst Conservator of Forests, Paresh Porob.
Acknowledging that thus far there were only a couple of scientific studies carried out on Muggers of Goa; a rapid survey of Muggers of Santa Monica Lake in the erstwhile Ciba-Geigy campus by Romulus Whitaker and a yearlong WWF-funded study on Muggers of Cumbarjua canal conducted by me and my team in 1993, Choudhary lamented that much time has lapsed and that there was an urgent need to update information on the extant population of Muggers in Goa.
I was delighted to know that he has already put in a word with the higher-ups in the forest brigade of the state and that he was hopeful of a positive response. I assured him of my keen interest and unwearying enthusiasm, while mentally keeping my fingers crossed given the track record of our collective apathy towards the ‘Manngem’, as the Mugger is called in Goa.
Having researched the Muggers of Goa, I hold a sense of pride and guilt towards the reptile. My pride lies in the fact that my investigation conducted with scientific rigour exactly 3 decades ago addressed a few critical gaps in ecology, ethology, and eco-theology of this enigmatic species.
Ours was the first census of the wild Muggers of Cumbarjua canal of Goa, and an attempt to assess the conservation status of this crocodile in the state. Much more fascinating was our documentation and validation of ‘Manngem Thapnee’ a folk-religious ceremony of Crocodile worship practised by the ethnic agrarian community sharing habitat with the Muggers of Goa.
We were the first research group in the country to give the much-deserved limelight to what was until then perceived as a primitive religious cult of the Hindu Gawdas, by highlighting the built-in conservation ethos of this ritual. This eco-theological context and connect was much appreciated and endorsed not only by hardcore Indian conservation biologists but also anthropologists across the world! That in 2014, I was invited to present this case study at the European Congress of Conservation Biology in France as a testimony to its novelty and acceptance by the global conservation fraternity.
However, I am pained and guilty that despite having served as an expert member on the state wildlife Board for as many as 9 long years, I could not influence any policy decision in favour of the Mugger crocodiles of my state. Nor could I achieve a state-wide assessment of this ‘wild reptilian destitute of our mangroves’.
Coming from a man of Prof Choudhary’s stature, the state must grab this offer with enthusiasm and urgency; extending all possible assistance, financial and logistical. His rich experience in handling crocodile conservation programs in big states like UP, Bihar and Punjab underpins his expertise and experience; and Goa must benefit from that.
Let us understand the current crocodile scenario in the state succinctly. Goa has only one species of crocodile and that is the Mugger (Crocodylus palustris). Though a freshwater crocodile, in Goa it has adapted to brackish waters, prompting a genomic enquiry. There has been no comprehensive effort at enumerating this reptile and its habitats in the state have not been mapped systematically. Sporadic occurrences are being reported from across Goa; however, there is no mechanism to collate their distribution pattern here. Mugger crocodile is indeed a ‘Flagship species’ of Goa’s luxuriant mangrove ecosystem along the Mandovi-Cumbarjua-Zuari estuarine complex and its conservation is intrinsically linked with the protection of these salt-tolerant forests.
The rising incidents of crocodiles straying into human habitations and incremental cases of human-crocodile conflict in Goa are alarming, the recent fatal episode involving a pastoral woman being attacked by the Mugger in Amthane in Bicholim taluka is a warning of impending disaster caused by shrinking wilderness and increasing proximity of people to wildlife.
Crocodile safaris of Cumbarjua are certainly a sustainable tourism option, but only if practised without violating ‘Visitors Carrying Capacity’. Overenthusiastic tourists violating the croc’s territorial limits at the basking sites can be mutually detrimental. Clandestine sale of crocodile meat and eggs cannot be ruled out in absence of intelligence gathering.
Conservation cannot work only on trust but requires active surveillance on ground to dissuade poachers. Mugger being a schedule-I species is entitled to focused protection and conservation from the state authorities, yet there is little that has happened thus far in absence of scientific enquiry.
‘Manngem Thapnee’ is unique cultural expression of Amchem Goem and must be on Goa’s tourism itinerary, to benefit the local custodian community. The SCERT and DoE must include scientific information on Mugger in the syllabus of formative years to sensitise the younger generation on our wildlife. That Muggers were purposely introduced around the island of Tiswadi as a deterrent for enemies advancing from the sea will surely be an interesting piece of information to students of history!
Today on World Crocodile Day I earnestly hope and pray that this neglected reptile of our state gets the attention and assistance that it richly deserves.
(Author is a senior academic and a reputed Biologist)
