Three Species, One Crisis
By the early 1970s, India had hunted and farmed its crocodilians to the edge of disappearance. The mugger (Crocodylus palustris), found across freshwater lakes and rivers from Rajasthan to Odisha, had been slaughtered for its skin. The saltwater crocodile (Crocodylus porosus), the largest living reptile on Earth, adults regularly exceed six metres and 1,000 kilograms, had been commercially harvested across the Andaman Islands and the Sundarbans until populations collapsed. The gharial (Gavialis gangeticus), a fish-eating specialist with a narrow, elongated snout unlike any other crocodilian, was down to an estimated 200 individuals in the wild. All three were headed in one direction.
