Sanctuary Asia — January 2018

More at http://www.sanctuaryasia.com | Species Focus

natal den site and nursery that is by his
fi shing stretch. Through this period, for
much of the last three seasons, he has
noted down the numbers he has seen
every single day along with the time
of observation, the number of pups
and the location. In the process, he has
learnt much more about them than he
had known earlier (which itself was a
fair bit) and is now a sort of expert-
cum-coach to us, providing us much
more than just data. We share notes on
just how playful they are, sliding down
sand chutes into the river and rolling on
the sand, while chatting animatedly with
each other and we marvel at the ease
with which pups – those little bundles
of infectious joy – learn to swim.
Sivu has, equally, learnt to let them
live alongside him in the river, which
is saying a great deal, for fi shermen
dislike otters because they pick fi sh up
from the nets that are cast into the
water and, even worse, tear these nets
with their sharp teeth in the process. It
is an uneasy co-existence, and can be
compared to the one you read about
on land, where tigers and leopards prey
on domestic cattle, resulting in calls
for retaliation from aggrieved farmers.
Yet, this analogy has a deeper meaning
and couldn’t be more apt, for the otter
is to the river what the tiger is to the
forest: an apex predator, whose health
and survival determines the health of
its ecosystem, and by indirect inference,
our well-being.
Jason Tetro, a microbiologist who
is better known as ‘The Germ Guy’,
and is the author of two books - The
Germ Code, and The Germ Files wrote
this about otters (he was referring to
the sea otter, but the principle can
be perfectly applied to the smooth-
coated otter as well): Otters also have
another incredible link to humans albeit
the association is far more impactful.
They can help us identify public health
problems related to pollution and
infections. Though they live a diff erent
lifestyle than us, their mammalian
nature allows the opportunity to
study what could happen to us as our
world changes.

SENTINELS OF THE

AQUATIC WORLD

In the public health world, animals

such as the otter are considered to

be sentinels. This term refers to any

animal whose biological, geographical

and even psychological change in

response to an environmental change

can be used as a model to better

understand how humans may be

aff ected in the future. These factors

can include a number of possibilities,

from the impact of pollution to the

spread of infectious disease.

In the period from the 1970s

to around 2005, smooth-coated

otters across India were poached

by professional gangs of poachers,

who used information provided by

local fi shermen on otter presence,

laid traps for the animals and then

clubbed them to death to meet the

insatiable needs of the wildlife trade:

otter skin was used in the production

of bags for the international market

and was transported along with tiger

and leopard skins. The Cauvery was

no exception; during our travels along

the river, we have heard a number of

ABOVE & FACING PAGE Otters in general, and

smooth-coated otters of the Cauvery river in

particular, are indicators of the health of the

waterbodies. These apex predators have a

role to play in their watery ecosystems, akin

to that of predators such as tigers on land.

In the public health world, animals such as the otter are considered to be sentinels. This term refers to any animal

whose biological, geographical and even psychological change in response to an environmental change can be

used as a model to better understand how humans may be aff ected in the future.

anecdotes of these poaching gangs

• whole families of ‘Hindi speaking’
  nomads (either the Pardhis, Bawarias
  or Bahelias). About a decade ago,
  organised poaching seems to have
  come to a halt for reasons that we do
  not yet know, yet the future of otters
  in the Cauvery and in other parts where
  they have survived, is far from secure.
  Nityata’s work in, at fi rst,
  understanding otter occurrence and
  then threats along the non-protected
  stretches of the Cauvery river in
  Karnataka began in 2012 and the
  agenda was, and remains, to plan and
  execute a long-term conservation
  programme with the involvement
  of local stakeholders. When we fi rst
  spotted the otters here – that was in
  the early summer of 2013 – the alarm
  bells rang in frenzy in our heads. For the
  river stretch here – the corridor used
  by otters as they moved about – was in
  deep trouble. The mining of sand, under

ANITH B.