Employees of Tata Steel Zoological Park take the female gharial to hospital. Picture by Bhola Prasad

Jamshedpur, June 19: The Tata Steel Zoological Park (TSZP) authorities are flustered, clueless where the three Gangetic gharials, which escaped from their enclosures yesterday, are.

Trouble for the authorities began last morning when the water level went up significantly following heavy rains. This set free four gharials and the lone crocodile of the zoo. One gharial and a crocodile were spotted. The crocodile was caught last evening — but escaped later — while one of the gharials was caught this morning.

However, three Gangetic gharials are missing and worse, two of them have not been spotted yet. The water level on the zoo campus has come down considerably — it was 13ft yesterday — but attempts to trace the gharials have not been successful.

Further, Tata Steel Zoological Park authorities are worried that the reptiles could escape to the Subernarekha.

The gharials are somewhere inside a water pit connected to the river. This morning, a wire mesh was put at the mouth of the pit in an attempt to the keep the reptiles in the zoo. But Tata Steel Zoological Park authorities have said this is not a foolproof measure.

“When we put the mesh in place, the place was submerged. There is no way of knowing if the mesh was fixed in the right place to stop the gharials from escaping to the Subernarekha,” said an official who supervised search operations at the zoo this morning.

The official had another priority: catch the crocodile.

The crocodile had managed to escape later in the evening. The immense water pressure broke the net confining the crocodile and it escaped. It was, however, caught today, along with the gharial.

On the missing Gangetic gharials, Tata Steel Zoological Park deputy director Manik Palit said they are trying their best to net the reptiles.

“We are keeping our fingers crossed and hoping to recover all the animals. Efforts are also being made to ensure that they are rescued,” said Palit, who is also a veterinary surgeon.

Two gharials were spotted floating in the lake late this morning —the last time they were sighted.

Meanwhile, the rescued reptiles were taken on a trolley to the zoo hospital. Even the inhabitants of the cages located at lower levels have been shifted to the hospital.

Authorities said the hospital is on a higher plane than the rest of the zoo. Sharing space at the zoo now are the crocodile, the female gharial and rescued birds.

“The animals will be kept at the hospital till the water level recedes completely and normalcy returns. Alternative enclosures have been earmarked for these animals so that they can tide over the crisis,” said M.S Jain, the director of the TSZP.

Yesterday, the zoo director had said the “gharials are free to attack people” but “there is no fear of the animals getting out of the zoo”. Today, however, there was no such assurances.