Rajaram Atigre

The paper is about the first record of crocodile Crocodylus palustrius (Lesson, 1831) from river Kadavi at Sarud, Tal-Shahuwadi. Dist-Kolhapur, M. S., India. This is the first record of the order Crocodilia and genus Crocodylus for River Kadavi and western Maharashtra. In the month of February 2007, one crocodile was observed basking on left bank of river Kadavi near village Sarud of Kolhapur district. In May 2007, nesting of crocodile was also observed on the same place. We have used ground survey method to identify new potential habitat of the animal and to examine the distribution and presence of the species. Field observations indicated that the crocodile is present in river Kadavi-the tributary of river Warana which is the major tributary of river Krishna. River Krishna is a main river of Deccan plateau running from Sahyadri ranges of Maharashtra to Bay of Bengal in east direction. Besides, the presence of crocodile in river Kadavi their movements were observed in river Warana also. Still no any record is available, which confirms the presence of this crocodilian species in river Kadavi and Warana and based on this evidenced study, one more reptilian species – crocodile Crocodylus palustrius can be added to the list of reptilian fauna of these rivers as well as that of Kolhapur district. This new record of crocodile's presence in the river Kadavi and Warana requires further investigations.

According to World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) ‘Human–wildlife conflict’ is "any interaction between humans and wildlife that results in negative impacts on human social, economic or cultural life, on the conservation of wildlife populations, or on the environment.” Present study was carried out to know the Crocodile-Animal conflict and threats to this endangered species from Warana basin. One human-crocodile conflict and three animal-crocodile conflicts have been reported from the present study. Sand mining from the habitat of crocodile, use of crocodile eggs as a food source by some tribal people and possibility of accidental killing of crocodiles are the measure threats to the crocodile population from Warana basin. Hence, conflict management strategies should be applied, mitigation of Crocodile-Animal conflict should be employed and threats to this endangered species should be reduced.
Key Words: - Crocodile-Animal conflict, crocodile population, Threats, Warana basin