MUGGER OR MARSH CROCODILE

Recently, Odisha’s Kendrapara district has earned the distinction of being the only district in India where all three species of crocodiles, salt-water, gharial and mugger, are found.

Important points:

• An egg-laying and hole-nesting species, also known to be dangerous.
• Mainly restricted to the Indian subcontinent where it may be found in a number of freshwater habitat types and also in coastal saltwater lagoons and estuaries.
• It is already extinct in Bhutan and Myanmar.
• Habitat destruction, fragmentation, and transformation, fishing activities and use of crocodile parts for medicinal purposes.
• IUCN List of Threatened Species-Vulnerable
• CITES- Appendix I
• Wildlife Protection Act, 1972- Schedule I

Conservation Efforts:

• Odisha has announced a cash award of Rs. 1,000 to conserve gharials in Mahanadi River Basin.
• The Crocodile Conservation Project was launched in 1975 in different States.

SOURCE: THE HINDU,THE ECONOMIC TIMES,MINT