Sigma 100-400 OS C @100mm, f6.3, Nikon D750 Full moon, sunset gathering of an elephant family in Manas jungle. Many large mammals like to meet and interact at favourite spots in the evening. Assam
Sigma 100-400 OS C @400mm, f6.3, Nikon D750 Early afternoon, deer is attacked by crocodiles, especially those grazing on sprouts and young vegetation at the changing water’s edge, often barely able to move. Odisha mangroves
Sigma 100-400 OS C @200mm, f5.6, Nikon D750 Midday sun; an old saltwater crocodile basking in the sun at receding tide. This likely is an old male, still in good condition. We guess its size at something over four metres. When a crocodile grows more slowly in its young years (there is intense competition among the males of this species) it tends to reach a smaller size. If it’s more over four metres, then it certainly is a male. He soon moved somewhere more quiet. Besides factoring the age and mood, these reptiles, like all other creatures, have different personalities. They live side by side with locals in the park and the wider area despite fatal incidents that unfortunately cost human life (at least two fishermen were killed in 2019). The nesting season means danger to their eggs from other forest creatures such as boars, birds, fishing cats, wild dogs and other reptiles. The alerted crocodiles are then much more dangerous. This or awareness campaign encouraging the locals not to harm cobras, pythons and their eggs laid in the villages contrasts with sometimes hysterical headlines of tabloids in materially richest countries should any creature, other than those heading for the slaughterhouses, dare to exist. That for animals as harmless as the Eurasian lynx. And they would have to have a quality habitat to live in first if they were to interact with populations of the native and imported deer decimating what’s left of the forests. There are also signs of things changing. The Habitat Directive is having an impact on the established attitude and practice. Last year decision of the State Administrative Court of Salzburg to cancel a permit to shoot a ‘problematic wolf’ or halting logging in Bialowieza Forest are examples. Conservationists regularly count over a hundred crocodile nests in the park. Odisha
