An estuarine crocodile in Bhitarkanika wildlife sanctuary. Telegraph picture

Kendrapara, July 18: Wildlife personnel in the Bhitarkanika National Park have spotted 51 nesting sites of estuarine crocodiles although the annual breeding season of the reptiles is at its fag end stage. The number is expected to go up as the enumeration process is on.

Official sources said the wildlife enumerators had spotted the nests along the nullahs, creeks and water inlets in the Bhitarkanika river system, an ideal habitat of saltwater crocodiles.

The figure on the nest’s number might go up as the count was still on, said Manoj Kumar Mahapatra, divisional forest officer of the Rajnagar mangrove (wildlife) forest division. Last year, 57 nesting sites were spotted, a forest official said.

Female crocodiles lay 50 to 60 eggs and the hatchlings usually emerge from the nests after 70 to 80 days of incubation period. An estimated number of 700 crocodile hatchlings were sighted to be emerging from the nesting sites last year.

Forest department sources said the wildlife staff members had taken due care this time, so that predators such as snakes, jackals and dogs, found in the reserve, could not devour the crocodiles’ eggs.

The forest department’s conservation measures had led to a systematic rise in the number of the reptiles over the years, said an official.

The number of saltwater crocodiles, the species which are not found in any other river system in Odisha as per the latest census, in the sanctuary stood at 1,654.

The sanctuary has remained out of bounds for tourists to ensure the crocodiles’ disturbance-free nesting. The animals turn violent and restive over human interference in their habitat.

The enforced restriction on entry to the sanctuary was clamped on 31 May and it would be lifted on July 31, said an official. “The population rise of the species has been at a snail’s pace. Its growth is getting stabilised and stagnated,” said Mahapatra.

However, the internationally acclaimed Bhitarkanika Ramsar wetland continues to be the congenial habitat of the saltwater crocodiles with the swampy mangrove-infested region housing the largest number of the reptiles.

It was a record as nowhere in the country the species were spotted in such abundance, he said.

Wildlife researchers studying on saltwater crocs said habitat of the species was getting squeezed in about 26sqkm of water bodies within the national park. The reptiles prefer water bodies with salinity contents. The salinity level in some of the water bodies might be dropping, proving less ideal for crocodiles.

The researchers said it should be intensely studied to ascertain whether desalinised water had any thing to do with reproduction of the sensitive species.