KENDRAPARA: The forest and wildlife officials are taking help of GPS (Global Positioning System) to count the crocodiles during the week-long annual salt-water crocodile census in the rivers, creeks and other water bodies within the Bhitarkanika National Park. The census, which began on January 12, will continue till January 18.

Pune, November 17 After a crocodile was spotted on the banks of Katraj lake, located behind the Rajiv Gandhi Zoological Park by some visitors on Saturday, zoo employees on Monday carried out a "casual search" for the reptile.

Jipson Sikhera.Reema Narendran
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: This can happen only in Kerala. A crocodile park with zero births this millennium. This barren park is none other than the one at Neyyar, named with much hype and fanfare as the Steve Irwin Crocodile Rehabilitation and Research Centre, after the tragic death of the famed crocodile hunter, Steve Irwin.

Ratia (Fatehabad): The wild life conservation department has swung into action after crocodiles were spotted in the Ghaggar, passing through the town, near Kanwalgarh village, on Monday.

While two crocodiles were seen sitting on an elevated sandy place on the bank of river on Monday, local people said they had spotted at least five-six crocodiles in the river.

Lucknow: Exactly after a gap of ten days since an adult crocodile was caught from a pond in Fattepurwa village of Chinhat locality, forest team rescued another such crocodile from a pond in Bhakamau village.
The crocodile was spotted on Sunday morning and the matter was brought to the notice of the forest department team.
The team caught the reptile on Tuesday from the village under Gudamba police station, which was then taken to the ghariyal rehabilitation centre in Kukrail.

Bhitarkanika too small for reptiles and people - report of Ashutosh Mishra The Oriya name for the saltwater crocodile (Crocodylus porosus) is baula kumbhira, which literally means crazy crocodile. The moniker certainly rings true for people living in about 50 villages around Bhitarkanika National Park in Orissa's Kendrapara district. Home to the largest concentration of saltwater crocodiles in the country, the reserve is rife with human-crocodile conflict.

The safari park in Cox's Bazar has failed in breeding of the sweet-water crocodiles gifted by the Indian authorities more than two years back. The Indian government gave 40 sweeter-water crocodiles as a gift to Bangladesh from its reptile bank in Chennai at the end of 2005, official sources said. Twenty-nine of them were released in the lake of the country's lone safari park near the Cox's Bazar tourist resort for their breeding while five were sent to Dhaka Zoo and the remaining released in Khan Zahan Ali mazar pond in Bagerhat.

If all goes according to plan, the country's only crocodile farm in Phuentsholing will move to a more spacious location, further from the urban centre and allowing elbowroom for its inmates. An acute lack of space has been a longstanding problem for the farm, which was set up in 1976 behind Norgay cinema on a 0.58-acre area with 12 crocodiles (Crododylus palustris) and seven gharials. According to the gharial conservation program in-charge, B P Dhal, the new site planned near Dhoti khola, around a kilometre beyond the present location, will spread over a five-acre area.

Despite the mysterious death of more than 100 gharials in the Chambal river in the past three months, the Madhya Pradesh government today claimed that gharial and Magar population in Chambal national park has markedly increased while Gangestic river dolphins declined. A survey conducted on 435 Km stretch of the river from February 11 to 23 revealed that there were a total of 996 gharials as compared to 865 found last year, while the Magar population also rose from 194 to 219 during the period.