Vadodara/Anand: Has the spread of crocodile population increased in the lush green Charotar heartland of Central Gujarat? This is what nature lovers from across the country will study as part of the Charotar Crocodile Count 2016 - a unique effort to study crocodile population in the twin districts of Anand and Kheda.
With the support of wildlife enthusiasts from Kolkata, Bangalore, Mumbai apart from those within Gujarat, Voluntary Nature Conservancy (formerly known as Vidyanagar Nature Club) will conduct the crocodile count on January 16 and January 17.
"We have already received over 80 applications from which 30 will be finally selected for the count as part of citizen science programme whereby even common people can participate in this counting exercise which is normally done by only forest department and researchers," said Dhaval Patel, VNC's managing trustee.
VNC's last count in December 2014 had revealed that wetlands of Charotar are home to as many as 226 crocodiles.
It had also revealed that the spread of crocodile population is 1,300 square kilometres with every 100 square kilometre in the belt having over 14 crocodiles."But this time we are expecting that the spread of crocodile population would have increased as there are lot of fluctuations in the state of water bodies where there is more of aquatic vegetation compared to the last count," said Patel, adding that 26 water bodies will be covered under the survey.
After, the two days, VNC's team will also conduct night count to crosscheck the data.
The last count had also suggested that compared to other parts of Gujarat, Charotar had rarely witnessed instances of crocodiles attacking humans or livestock. Also, it was reported there is no poaching of mugger for their skin reported in the region.It is estimated that Gujarat has the largest population of around 1,500 mugger crocodiles in the country - much more compared to any other state in the country which is home to an estimated 2,500 mugger crocodiles.
