Kendrapara: An endangered baby gharial was rescued after the reptile was caught in a fishing net in Cuttack district, a forest department official said Saturday.
A fisherman found the gharial, a species of the freshwater crocodile, stuck in his net placed in the Birupa rivulet near Chotti village Friday. Local fishermen panicked after finding the unexpected catch, but they did not cause any harm to the distressed animal.
Forest department officials were called and they rescued the trapped animal. However, the net could no longer be used for fishing.
The official said the department took possession of the gharial which will be released later in the natural habitat at the Tikarpada Wildlife Sanctuary in Angul district.
Gharials, with their long snouts, are prone to get entangled in fishing nets, due to which they get trapped underwater and drown, or have their rostrums chopped off or killed to disentangle the nets, according to the World Wide Fund for Nature.
The species is listed under Schedule I of the Wildlife (Protection) Act and as critically endangered under the red list of the International Union for Conservation of Nature.
It is claimed that Kendrapara is the only district in India where three crocodile species — saltwater, gharial and mugger — are found in its river systems.
Odisha is the only state in the country having all three species in the wild. The state government launched a conservation programme for these crocodiles in 1975.
PTI