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Hundreds of saltwater crocodile hatchlings have begun emerging from 117 nesting sites in Bhitarkanika National Park, Kendrapara district, Odisha.
The park's annual survey recorded 117 estuarine crocodile nests in 2026, against 116 in 2025, 114 in 2024 and 122 in each of 2022 and 2023 - a stable breeding population.
Females lay about 50-60 eggs and hatchlings emerge after roughly 70-80 days of incubation, but barely one in a hundred survives to adulthood.
Bhitarkanika holds India's second-largest mangrove ecosystem after the Sundarbans and accounts for close to 70% of the country's estuarine crocodile population.
Declared Bhitarkanika Wildlife Sanctuary under the Wild Life (Protection) Act, 1972, to save the collapsing saltwater crocodile population
The 145 sq km core zone notified as Bhitarkanika National Park
Designated a Ramsar Site - Odisha's second, after Chilika Lake
117 nests recorded; hatchlings begin emerging over roughly a fortnight
The statute under which Bhitarkanika was declared a wildlife sanctuary in 1975 and later a national park; the saltwater crocodile is listed in its Schedule I, the highest level of protection.
Bhitarkanika was designated a Wetland of International Importance on 19 August 2002, Odisha's second Ramsar site after Chilika Lake.
Crocodylus porosus is listed under CITES, restricting international trade in the species and its parts; the IUCN Red List assesses it as Least Concern globally, though Indian populations depend on protected areas.
Bhitarkanika lies in north-eastern Kendrapara district, Odisha, formed by the deltaic deposits of the Brahmani, Baitarani, Dhamra and Pathsala rivers. It is bounded on the east by the Bay of Bengal and the Gahirmatha Marine Sanctuary, whose beach is a mass-nesting site for Olive Ridley turtles.
Where river freshwater meets tidal seawater, a salinity gradient sustains mangroves and halophytes on hydromorphic soils. The resulting maze of tidal creeks and mudflats gives Crocodylus porosus both nesting banks above high water and year-round prey.
Simple Analogy: A tidal nursery: fresh water from upstream, salt from the sea, cover in between.
GS Paper 3 > Conservation, environmental pollution and degradation; GS Paper 1 > Physical geography of India - deltas and coastal features
General Awareness > Indian Geography, National Parks and Wildlife
"Project Tiger" was launched in India in which year?
Answer: 1973
Crocodylus porosus, the world's largest living reptile, found in India mainly in Bhitarkanika, the Sundarbans and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.
A plant adapted to grow in saline soils, characteristic of mangrove and intertidal habitats.
A wetland designated as internationally important under the Ramsar Convention of 1971.
The building up of new land by deposition of riverine silt, an active process in the Bhitarkanika delta.