AHMEDABAD: Living in a city is stressful enough without having to swim in sewage. For the mugger crocodiles in Vadodara’s Vishwamitri river, surviving each day means enduring urban waste and industrial pollutants, which are taking a toll on them.
A study by researchers from Ahmedabad University and the Madras Crocodile Bank Trust has revealed high levels of faecal glucocorticoid hormone, an indicator of physiological stress, in these urban reptiles — up to four times higher than their counterparts in cleaner, rural waters.
“We have developed a welfare index to track the well-being of free-ranging muggers living across diverse ecological and environmental conditions in India,” says Brinky Desai, lead researcher and PhD student at the Biological and Life Sciences department at Ahmedabad University.
