E-Paper
Ganga, Bihar’s amazing otter, inspires British wildlife group
PATNA: An otter that lived an extraordinary 17 years in the Gangetic belt has inspired a British wildlife organisation, which has given a recently-rescued cub of
PATNA: An otter that lived an extraordinary 17 years in the Gangetic belt has inspired a British wildlife organisation, which has given a recently-rescued cub of the same species an identical name: Ganga.
It was 16 years ago that a young animal lover in Bhagalpur purchased a two-month-old otter that ended up marking the maximum life span measured around the globe for this semi-aquatic mammal. Sushant Dey, who saw the little otter trapped in early 2000, bought it and named it ‘Ganga’ before hand-rearing the carnivorous pup — for the next eight years. In 2008, he let the otter slip back into its own world. The saga of rehabilitated life continued in the Vikramshila Dolphin Gangetic Sanctuary area.
Early this year, on February 26, people living on the banks of the river Ganga hauled out a dead otter, which Dey recognised as his own pet from a birthmark he knew. Otters are generally known to live a maximum of 16 years.
The ‘Ganga’ story travelled to as far as the United Kingdom, where the International Otter Survival Fund (IOSF) has now renamed one of its latest rescued otters after Bihar’s famed survivor. “We were flooded with suggestions from wildlife trusts across the globe on naming the little otter,” the IOSF website said. “After some discussion, we named the young otter ‘Ganga’, as the Bihar story inspired us.”
The Wildlife Trust of India (WTI) reveals the suggestion for the second ‘Ganga’ name came from an Indian. “It was by Rahul Kumar of Coalition Wild,” says WTI’s Radhika Bhagat, who had witnessed its rehabilitation in Bihar’s Bhagalpur district. Kumar notes that the otter of his friend Dey was unique in many ways. “Ganga responded only to Dey. It’s strange,” he says.
A roaring trade in otter skin and meat in south-east Asian countries and China threatens this critically-endangered animal. Otters are already on the IUCN Red List.
“Trapping otters for pet trade, encroachment of habitat, poaching for fur and rise in pollution levels in Vikramshila Gangetic Dolphin Sanctuary are among the factors that threaten otters’ existence,” said wetland ecology expert Dr SK Choudhary.
