Bhubaneswar: A gharial, whose mouth was stuck in a fishing net, was rescued, the net removed and the reptile set free by a team of experts.
The team included the state government’s gharial conservation project advisor Sudarshan Maharana, Nandankanan Zoo biologist Rajesh Mahapatra and crocodile caretakers.
The team, with the help of locals, caught the 11-ft reptile, tranquillised it and removed the net. It was then set free in the Mahanadi in Narsinghgarh area of Athagarh forest division in Cuttack district.
It must be mentioned that sometime back Nandankanan Zoo authorities had released some gharial hatchlings in the Mahanadi with transmitters fitted to their bodies.
The gharial that was trapped in the fishing net was one of them and had moved some 57 km away. Though it managed to free itself from the net, a portion of the nylon strings wound around his mouth.
Villagers found the gharial moving restlessly on the banks of the river. After Nandankanan authorities came to know about it, they swung into action.
Gharials, with their long snouts, are prone to getting entangled in fishing nets that often kills them.
In October too a similar incident had happened when a gharial was stuck in a fishing net in Birupa rivulet near Chhoti village in Cuttack district.
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