Crocodile enclosures to protect people

By Ifham Nizam

Two top Sri Lankan scientists are joining hands to promote traditional Crocodile excluding enclosures, which they believe is the answer to reduce the Human-Crocodile conflict and save humans and conserve crocodiles in Sri Lanka.

Annually dozens of people in Sri Lanka die due to crocodile attacks and another dozen or so are left with serious injuries.

Plans are afoot to give Crocodile excluding enclosures free of charge to extremely needy areas in the dry zone.

Anslem de Silva, Vice Chairman, Crocodile Specialist Group IUCN (Internal Conservation Union)/SSC for South Asia and Iran and Ruchcira Somaweera (PhD candidate, Australia) are conducting this study/project. They haveobtained funds from the Chicago Zoological Society’s Chicago Board of Trade Endangered Species Fund for this survey.

De Silva told The Island yesterday that historically, Sri Lanka had a large population of mugger crocodiles, but at the height of the leather industry in 1920-30s, the species had been extensively hunted to the point of near extinction.

"Nevertheless, since legal protection was introduced in 1938, appreciable populations have established, especially within larger tanks (reservoirs) in the dry zone. With the exponential increase of human populations in the dry zone due to large-scale agricultural projects, the number of humans and livestock using these water bodies has also largely increased in the recent past," he added.

This sharing of an essential, but a limited resource has resulted in an increase in the Human-Crocodile conflict. A preliminary survey conducted in 2010 in more than 100 water bodies reveals that about 130 persons were attacked with 35 fatalities. About 80 per cent of them were attacked while they were bathing and washing clothes in tanks. Conversely over 50 crocodiles were killed in revenge and as a measure to prevent future attacks.

Crocodile Excluding Enclosures (CEE) have been traditionally used by people in the southern wet zone where humans frequently use rivers inhabited by saltwater crocodiles.

According to Anslem, the CEE is a simple device where three sides are fenced with wooden poles. Given the success of these enclosures in segregating humans and crocodiles, they could be modified and introduced to the tanks in the northern dry zone.

Anslem said: "We plan to establish a set of experimental CEEs to monitor their benefits and educate the local residents on their use. This could be a simple but effective way of saving lives of humans and livestock and reducing the human-induced mortality of muggers in Sri Lanka."

At present, the largest wild mugger population in th world is found here. However, they are facing numerous threats, making the existing populations vulnerable to future depletion.

Anslem believes segregating humans and muggers would be the best solution for this emerging concern. This could be achieved by introducing a traditional system of CEEs inside which residents could perform their daily needs safely. The proposed study will help. install CEEs with the involvement of the vulnerable local people; introduce a system to monitor and maintain the setup and increase awareness on the importance of the crocodiles and preventing crocodile attacks.

An earlier study by Anslem in 2008 which The Island reported exclusively, has shown that in the Nilwala Ganga and its tributaries in Southern Sri Lanka had a high incidence of saltwater crocodile attacks: however, all crocodile attacks were on people who did NOT USE the traditional CEEs.

The researchers request the following details from villagers in the crocodile infested areas.

a) Name of the water body, locality, approach details
b) Number of bathing places
c) Average number of humans use per day
d) Number of people attacked by crocodiles
e) Suggest a good place to install the CEEs
f) Name and contact details of the person supplying information

Affected villagers can write to Anslem de Silva 15/1 Dolosbage road, Gampola, before December 15, 2011

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