Wildlife Week is being celebrated across the country to commemorate the birthday anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi and the Crocodilian and Freshwater Turtle Research and Conservation Project celebrates this Wildlife Week and and his 150th birth anniversary with our amazing videos on the some aspects of natural behavior of the crocodiles of Corbett.
Corbett Tiger Reserve is home to the third largest breeding population of the gharial globally, a beautiful crocodile sadly on the brink of extinction. Here the species lives and breeds in the large 84 square kilometer reservoir formed by the damming of the Ramganga River in 1974.
Gharial nesting in the core area of Corbett Tiger Reserve takes place in the months of March and April as the reservoir water levels fall giving birth to sandbanks on the hillslopes which are used by gharial here to lay their eggs. With the first monsoon rains, the gharial eggs hatch and these vulnerable gharial hatchlings hide in fresh growing grass along their nest banks while they are watched over by an ever protective mother.
While gharial hatchlings hide in the grass, the mugger crocodiles of Corbett seek out sand banks along the Ramganga River in Corbett to soak in the winter sun and warm themselves up with their distinctive High Walk.
These two rather unique ways in which crocodiles use the shorelines of Corbett bring to the fore the role that the shorelines of Corbett Tiger Reserve play as critical habitat for these threatened species.
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