Requiem for a Crocodile Reflections on recent developments on the wildlife front in Goa
by V. M. de Malar [EMAIL PROTECTED] A young marsh crocodile died from a bullet wound early this week, in Siolim. No one knows who shot it, or why; the corpse was simply found lying in the fields. It was sizeable, around six feet long, and children had fun posing for photographs with the inert jaw propped open. In the newspaper photo you can see all the characteristic attributes of the "mugger"; broad snout, tail with two series of scales merging into one, webbed toes. A ferocious hunter in water, this one got caught out on land and paid the price. But how did this beast get to Siolim in the first place? Are there crocodiles up and down the Chapora River? Is this mugger a loner who made a solitary journey far away from its natural habitat, or merely one of many crocs which have always lived in Siolim but never bothered to add their names to that village's list of resident luminaries? The sad truth is that we don't know, that we have barely any idea of what lurks in our rivers and jungles. Even as our ecosystem comes under threat from unchecked urbanization and development, we find ourselves ignorant of what we have and stand to lose. How many of us know that Goa lies adjacent to a globally significant ecological "hotspot"? International scientists have picked out twenty-five zones around the world, totalling a mere 1.4 per cent of the world land surface but home to half of existing plant species and 30 per cent of vertebrates. These are reservoirs of biodiversity, the most precious natural reserves left. India has two; the North East and the Western Ghats. Both are endangered and shrinking, comprehensively underexplored and badly understood. An illustration of this is the very recent discovery of a new large-sized macaque species in Arunachal Pradesh; scientists have only to barely scratch the surface of the jungle and a major unknown animal saunters out. In Goa, of course, we know next to nothing about our own biodiversity despite our small size, and despite the presence of quite a large scientific corps. The only thing we can really be sure of is that species are dying out without being recorded because natural habitats are torn down to make place for our burgeoning population. We also know that rapacious bulldozers are on the move in territory that has never been properly studied, and what we lose now is irreplaceable. Kerala is way ahead in understanding its natural patrimony; they're constantly carrying out studies to catalogue biodiversity, and they are predictably discovering all kinds of new things. Recently, for example, students of Sacred Heart College in Ernakulam carried out a spider survey in nearby mangroves and found an astounding three new species in just 2.5 hectares. Similar findings were reported from a far more comprehensive study of freshwater fish conducted by the School of Industrial Fisheries, which recorded dozens of specimens that nobody knew swam in Kerala waters. Improbable but true; one of these new findings happened to be the mahseer. And what's more, another Himalayan fish was found swimming way down South in waters which were thought to have no connection with the far North. In order to help explain these findings, the old and radical Satpura hypothesis is being re-examined anew. It's an idea proposed in 1949, by an ichthyologist named Hora, who claimed that there must be a contigual corridor of evergreen forest cover that stretches between what we now call India's biodiversity hotspots. In effect, that means that the North East and the Western Ghats could be connected, that they might be interlinked. That means that Goa is also most likely tied into a complex ecological system that stretches thousands of miles into the Himalayas, and we might be able to prove this via more research. Our universities should take note of that Ernakulam study and emulate it, our forest officials should call in the School for Industrial Fisheries just as Kerala did, we should formulate a Biodiversity Corps in our schools; we need to have a top-to-bottom cataloguing of our biodiversity before it's too late. Just like it's too late to find out more about that croc that went for a fatal walk in the moonlight in Siolim. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Returned expat, _VM_ is the pen name of an earlier active Goanetter, who writes often in the Herald, and now lives with his US-returned family at Campal. 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