CHITWAN, Jan 3: Male crocodiles have been spotted in the Rapti and Narayani rivers flowing through the Chitwan National Park (CNP).

CNP states that the discovery of six male crocodiles in these rivers is good news at a time when the number of male crocodiles is low.

Ganesh Prasad Tiwari, information officer of the park, said that three male gharial crocodiles were spotted each in the Narayani and Rapti rivers during the fifteen-day count. According to him, in the previous count, only three male crocodiles were found in these rivers.

A total of 265 gharials were found in the census conducted in the CNP area. The number of gharials is more in the Rapti River than in the Narayani River. Tiwari said that while 113 crocodiles were found in the Narayani River, 152 were found in Rapti. Counting was done by a team of 10 employees of CNP along with members of the National Nature Conservation Fund and the Biodiversity Conservation Center from December 17 to December 31. Tiwari said that materials such as wooden boats, rower boats, GPS cameras, binoculars etc were used during the crocodile monitoring work.

He said that three dolphins were also spotted during the monitoring. The park also releases gharial crocodiles raised in the breeding centers into the rivers occasionally. Until last February, the park had released nearly 2,000 crocodiles in Narayani, Rapti and other rivers.

 
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