Here, There, Everywhere: The Muggers of Chambal

Crocodilian heads surfaced, now and again, along the Chambal River in Uttar Pradesh. Most belonged to marsh crocodiles (Crocodylus palustris), better known as muggers in the Indian subcontinent. Instinctively, I channelled Steve Irwin, my fantasised alter ego. Irwin was an Australian wildlife conservationist, television personality and educator who I spent hours watching on Animal Planet as the exuberant host of “The Crocodile Hunter”. No sooner did a mugger enter my frame than I handed my camera over to my guide, Dushyant Singh. The opportunity to say Irwin’s catchphrase, “Crikey, isn’t she a beauty” on camera was unmissable.  

Despite his reputation for unnecessarily manhandling wild animals, Irwin inspired many like me, who grew up watching him on television. I was transported back to my Irwin-worshipping childhood on a trip to the Chambal Wildlife Sanctuary in November 2024. The sanctuary, a 425-km protected stretch of the Chambal River flowing through Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, and Uttar Pradesh, harbours two magnificent crocodilians — the mugger and the gharial (Gavialis gangeticus).

A juvenile mugger’s lime green eyes stared vacantly into space as it basked on a river island in the afternoon sun. The black bands of its hatchling days had almost faded from its olive-green body. Juveniles and hatchlings are known to stay near their nest until they are about a year old. The nest is usually a hole along the riverbank where the mother lays around 25-30 eggs between February and April. She carries the hatchlings to the river in her jaws when they emerge around 55-75 days later.

   

An adult mugger had claimed rights over that island the following day. Two-red wattled lapwings maintained a respectable distance from the crocodile whose demeanour suggested “do not disturb”. A few teeth jutted out from its jaws. The mugger has the broadest snout of all crocodiles, with 19 upper teeth on each side. Near the tip of its snout is a nasal disc with two nostrils and a protective flap at each opening.

We spotted muggers swimming in the river from time to time. Sometimes, only their heads were visible, at other times, their backs were too. One swam alongside our boat. Suddenly, in a scene reminiscent of one from the American horror-comedy film Lake Placid, the crocodile turned its head in the direction of our boat. I gasped before remembering that “animals in the binoculars’ viewfinder are not as close as they appear”. Muggers cruise in the water at speeds of around 1.6-3.2 km/hour but can accelerate to around 16-19 km/hour. They can also run on land for short distances at speeds of around 12 kmph.   

Across one week at the Chambal Wildlife Sanctuary, I saw more crocodiles than I could count. Around 928 muggers were recorded in the Chambal in 2024, a significant rise from the 19 recorded in 1984. According to a study published in Nature in 2024, the mugger population has notably increased and colonised the sanctuary. Suyash Katdare, one of the study’s authors, said, “Muggers live in the Chambal without any external assistance. Unlike gharials, whose populations are assisted through collection of eggs, rearing and releasing of wild hatchlings, muggers don’t need much attention. They are a generalist species [living in various environments] that can survive without human intervention. We observed muggers thriving in the Chambal under the protection provided to gharials.”

The word “mugger” is derived from the Hindi “magar”, which in turn is taken from the Sanskrit “makara” for a legendary sea creature. The creature is often depicted with the body of a lion, a crocodile mouth, and peacock tail. In Hindu iconography, the “makara” is portrayed as the vehicle of the river goddess Ganga and the insignia of the love god Kamadeva. On our way back to the jetty, we saw a mugger resting its head on the river’s edge. Its grey form reflecting against the dark water exuded a primeval aura.

  

In India, crocodilian numbers significantly declined through the 1960s due to poaching, agriculture, and sand mining. Consequently, the marsh crocodile, saltwater crocodile, and gharial were placed under Schedule 1 of the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972, which prohibited hunting and trade in them in any form. A dedicated conservation and management programme termed Project Crocodile was launched in 1975 to revive their numbers.

“The entire landscape has a lot of muggers, especially the tributaries of the Chambal. Muggers are also present in some lakes towards Gwalior and Shivpuri. These muggers start venturing into human habitations during the monsoon and are subsequently caught and released into the Chambal. There have been a lot of haphazard, undocumented releases as well. As a result, individuals from other source populations have probably mixed into the Chambal population. This has worked out in a good way for the muggers because the population is genetically diverse,” Katdare stated.

  

Morarilal Berwa, my guide on another day, introduced me to Ramphool, a large adult male crocodile, at Palighat in Rajasthan, basking with its mouth open. Known as “mouth gaping”, this strategy is similar to mammals panting, and allows the reptile to cool its body down. Muggers can grow up to five metres long and live up to 28 years in the wild. According to Morarilal, Ramphool is the largest crocodile in the Palighat area. Once on a safari with a group of journalists, Moralilal, on sighting the hulk, exclaimed, “Wo dekho Ramphool baitha hai” (look, Ramphool is sitting there), spitting out the first name that came to his mind. The name stuck after a photo of Ramphool was published in the local newspaper the following day.

I observed muggers and gharials basking on the same bank, sometimes barely a few metres away from each other. “Instances of direct conflict between mugger and gharial are rare. Adult muggers don’t get in the way of adult gharials, which are larger in size. Competition between the two species happens only in terms of resources and habitat availability. The mugger has a higher chance of survival among the two considering their increasing population and habitat degradation. Muggers, unlike gharials, can live in suboptimal habitats. If metropolitan lakes like Powai can harbour muggers, the Chambal, with its clear water and ample food resources, is like a five-star resort. If we see muggers taking over gharial habitat or direct conflict between the two in the future, adaptive measures may need to be taken,” concluded Katdare.

Perhaps attracted to the accumulated trash, muggers were always seen under the bridge at Palighat. On my last day on the Chambal, the omnipresent reptile once again surfaced near the jetty. A gentle reminder that the river belonged to them, and I was lucky to share the same frame.