Crocodiles are seemingly performing the role of 'honorary forest guards' admirably in the core area of the wildlife sanctuary. The fear of marauding crocs greatly regulates the human intrusion. Now the crocs' habitat is being expanded to areas subjected to wanton tree felling, remarked the forest officials.

To stop frequent movement of villagers into the forest area, as many as 48 crocodiles were released last week into the water bodies in Kharinasi and Jamboo areas of the sanctuary, said forest officials.

These pockets located at the southern most part of the 672 sq km stretch sanctuary are visibly marked by skeletal forest cover. A number of thickly populated human settlements dot the area within the sanctuary jurisdiction.

Wanton felling of mangrove and conversion of green field into paddy and shrimp cultivation is a pertinent feature in these parts, according to forest department sources.

"We are pressing into service these reptiles for forest conversation. Once crocodiles are firmly ensconced in the water inlets, human intrusion would be greatly curtailed. Fear of croc attack would keep the human trespassers away from the water sources. As the people here take the water route to sneak into the forest, we feel the crocs may come in handy to protect the forest," observed Golakh Rout, Additional Conservator of Forest, Rajnagar Mangrove (Wildlife) Forest Division.

The water bodies, nullahs and innumerable creeks that meander through this internationally acclaimed wetland are infested with hundreds of salt-water crocodiles. Human interference into the core forest areas are kept within bounds as these violent species often launch lethal attack on human trespassers into the water bodies.

Every year crocs are bred in captivity in the wildlife sanctuary's crocodile research centre. The newborn hatchlings are reared and nurtured for three to four years and later the reptiles are released in the wild as a part of estuarine crocodile conservation programme.

In the past, the captive bred crocs were used to be released in the core areas of the sanctuary surrounded by thick mangrove vegetation.

"But for a change, we shifted the release-exercise to areas where mangrove denudation is pronounced due to hectic human interference. It is being hoped that the experiment is going to reap results," a forest official observed.

The mangroves all along the Orissa coast are threatened due to high density of population in these areas and competing demand for land for agriculture and prawn farming.

There are a large number of villages within this protected wetland of Bhitarkanika. Historically, migrants from neighbouring states and even from across the Bangla borders have settled here destroying the mangroves in the process. The settlements that came up following the influx of migrants have in the meanwhile been declared as revenue villages by the state government more out of political compulsion.

The migrants served as secured vote banks for the political parties over the years. As a result as many as 43 revenue villages continue to thrive in the core area of the sanctuary causing irreparable damage to peripheral flora and fauna in Bhitarkanika ecosystem. The wasteland and pastureland that erroneously form part of revenue land are all encroached upon.