INDIAN EXPRESS (New Delhi, India) 05 November 08 Where have all the crocodile eggs gone? (Reema Narendran)
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.
As any resident in the Neyyar area will tell you, crocodiles are a group of fast-breeding animals. There are 14 male and 18 female crocodiles at the centre, totaling 32. And yet, there are no babies in the park, run by the Forest Department.
Compare this with the crocodile breeding centre at Muta near Ranchi. With an area of 0.02 sq km, it started off with three crocodiles from Bihar and two from the breeding centre at Chennai in the year 1987. Today, it houses 50-odd crocodiles. A 10-fold increase, true to the fast-breeding nature of the species.
The youngest crocodile at the Steve Irwin Centre is 10 years old. So what has been happening to the crocodiles since 1998? It is not because the stock population has turned old and has lost interest in breeding. The average age of the crocodiles at the centre is only 15 years, say documents from the Forest Department secured through the Right to Information Act.
In protected areas like parks, the eggs have no threat as in natural conditions. Yet, no babies were born during the period from 2000 to 2008. So the million-dollar question is, where have all the crocodile eggs gone?
We posed the question to the Forest officials, including Chief Wildlife Warden J.K. Tiwari and Conservator K.J. Varghese. Both of them were busy with meetings; but Varghese had a sarcastic suggestion to make: ``Why don’t you ask the question through the Right to Information Act?’’
They had no answer, or knew enough to know that it would be wise to keep silent on the issue.
We posed the question to some residents of the area. ``Oh, the Forest officials inside the park destroy the eggs. They either stamp on them or collect them in a sack and sink it to the bottom of the river,’’ said one, who didn’t want to be named so as ‘not to get into trouble with the Forest officials’.
``Anyway, who wants to have these deadly creatures around?’’ he asked.
Crocodile bites are ghastly and none of the residents in the area were in favour of the reptiles.
Yes, it is difficult to conserve an animal that most people have little love for and conservation can have its drawbacks. Residents at Neyyar had to suffer from the Department’s folly of letting the crocodiles loose in the river many years ago. But does that mean the conservators have to turn terminators?
In 1975, the Government of India, in collaboration with the UNDP and the FAO, launched the Indian Crocodile Conservation Project. Benefiting from the technical expertise provided under this project, in 1976 the Delhi Zoological Park and the Madras Crocodile Bank had focused on breeding mugger crocodiles in captivity. Why not send these crocodile eggs to such places instead of abandoning them to oblivion?
The even bigger question is, do we need such a centre, that too named after Irwin, who loved the reptiles? As it is, the newly-opened centre had to be closed down after cracks developed on the floor of the pond. The Conservator of Forests (Agasthyavanam Biological Park), Conservator of Forests (Inspection and Evaluation) and a technical expert from Electricity Board are looking into the issue and the experts from Kerala State Housing Board are preparing the estimate for the rectification work.
This centre was the first government-run institution in the world to be named after Irwin and it had the potential to be developed into a tourist centre. But while the experts are taking their time, the crocodiles in the enclosure are on the fast track to extinction.
Where have all the crocodile eggs gone?