Counting of Crocodiles in water bodies of Gir forests to be taken up after over 2 decades tomorrow

Junagadh: Official counting of crocodiles living in various water bodies in and around Gir forests, famous as the sole abode of Gir lions, situated in Saurashtra region of Gujarat will be taken up tomorrow after over two decades.

During the last such census 22 years ago the number of crocodiles was found to be around 300.
Notably during the last five yearly census of lions in the forest their number was estimated to be 523 a 27% jump from the earlier one in 2010 which put it to 411.

A forest official today said that GPS system will be used to track the crocodiles. ‘As these reptiles living in forest areas are the ones of Marshy kind who can live out of water for a long time, there counting needs a very careful operation. Experts from Anand, Vadodara and Ahmedabad have also been roped in for the counting. The counting will continue the whole day tomorrow and the data will be prepared the next day,’ he said.

Notably, a crocodile breeding center is also situated in Sasan which is known as the center of Gir forests spread across three districts Junagadh, Amreli and Gir-Somnath.

DeshGujarat