Pyrrhic victory
| Cover story special package |
| Croc can"t go on | Tears for the crocodile | Pyrrhic victory | Where to live? | Lost manhood | Where to croc? |
In 1982 a report by Antoon de Vos, a wildlife biologist, for the fao/undp pronounced Project Crocodile as one of the most successful conservation projects in the world. And in 1991, the Union ministry of environment and forests felt that the project had served its purpose, and stopped funds for its captive breeding programme. Funds were also withdrawn for the egg collection programme. The thousands of crocodiles seen in various rearing stations and captive breeding centres were testimony enough for success. Others, however, were not that optimistic. The real litmus test for the project lay in increased sighting of the reptile in its natural habitats, they argued. And that was fraught terrain.
Bad census
De Vos had suggested stepping up the monitoring of released gharial to determine the continued effectiveness of Project Crocodile.In 1997-1998, monitoring exercises by the forest departments of Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh located over 1,200 gharials and over 75 nests in ncs. But no survey was carried out between 1999 and 2003. And the 2003 survey showed catastophic results. Gharial numbers (including adults, subadults and juveniles) had plummetted to 514