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the behaviour of smooth-coated otters
elsewhere though, as there seems to be
little literature on the matter.
This aggregated population of
otters has, over the last three years,
marginally increased and, when
last counted in early 2017, stood at
17 (that’s just a coincidence!). Our
experience in this river stretch is
that otters are best counted around
November, a little while after the pups
are born and fi rst emerge excitedly
from their holts. They are cajoled into
the water and are taught by their
determined mothers to swim.
THE HIDDEN THREATS
The increase in the otter population
cannot be termed a dramatic comeback
as one would hope for, yet there are
dollops of hope. Every year, the number
of pups born has been heart-warming,
even though their mortality is disturbing
- possibly, over half of the pups that
are born die before adulthood. The
reasons for this mortality could be
many and can only be speculated on, for
the threats even today are numerous:
predators of the pups such as snakes
or raptors, drowning, entanglement in
net fragments that are in the river and
littered all over the islands in the river
and along the banks, which result in
suff ocation or drowning.
If these threats weren’t daunting
enough, beneath the water lies a nasty,
systemic hidden predator against which
the otter is defenceless: pollution, that
is both the result of untreated sewage
fl owing into the river, as well as the
pesticides used in the rice plantations
alongside the river here. There is
history – albiet dismal history – to
support this view: during the 1970s,
England’s otter population plummeted,
the decline attributed to high levels of
Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs)
in rivers. After contaminants such as
organochlorine pesticides were banned,
otter populations steadily increased and
today the recovery of the population
appears to be complete. We, along the
Cauvery, are way behind: the reports of
the Karnataka State Pollution Control
Board have noted traces of toxic
pesticides, including dieldrin in some
river stretches, while levels of E. coli
bacteria at most measuring points is
many times over the safe limit – otters
are as susceptible to illnesses from
these bacteria as humans are, for they
are mammals.
Indeed, this is why otters matter.
The otters here at the H Otter
Corridor matter hugely as indeed do
all populations of otters in India and
elsewhere. They are mammals and
apex predators. Both of these mean
that they are subject to the stresses
caused by the ill health of the river
and their well-being in the river can be
seen as a sure indication of the river’s
health itself.
Nicole Duplaix, the Chair at
the Otter Specialist Group of the
International Union for Conservation of
Nature (IUCN), puts it very succinctly
indeed: “One of the surest ways to
know if an ecosystem is healthy is to
see if there are apex predators. It takes
a robust food web to be able to support
carnivores at the top. So when you
see a coral reef packed with sharks,
you know it’s doing well. When you
see a forest complete with wolves and
grizzlies, you know it’s a healthy forest.
And when you see a river system that
is home to river otters, you know it is
a healthy waterway. That’s why we call
otters ‘indicator species’ – they have a
story to tell us.
While we greatly appreciate river
otters for their playfulness and for
making our day a little brighter with
their antics, we need to also appreciate
them for the story they tell us just bytheir presence. If they are around and
healthy, then it means good things
for the entire habitat. And if they
disappear, then they just gave us a big
clue to start looking into what’s going
on in a river or lake system. We need to
value river otters for simply being there,
and letting us know when all is well.”
So, despite the threats to the otters
in the Cauvery, we have to fi ght for
their survival, for the issue is not just
them, it includes us as well. In this fi ght,
there is reason to hope, for the otters
have made it past a rough stretch of
time. “Treat them like bangaru (gold),”
I have told Sivu repeatedly, but I know
that he too has his limitations and will
balance his concern for them with the
demands of a fi shing livelihood.
There we sit on that wall, Sivu and
I, and watch the otters make their
way to a dense clump of reeds. There
are more calls emanating beyond
and it seems like other otters are
on their way, yet, as dusk gives way
to darkness, we stand up,
dust our trousers and walk
slowly away.
We, like our sentinels
in the river, need to go
home too. GThese smooth-coated otter individuals were caught emerging from their post-natal den along the
banks of the Cauvery on camera-trap.ANITH B.Founder of Nityata River Otter
Conservancy, which works on otter
conservation along the Cauvery and Tillari
rivers, his particular interest is in using the
principles of stakeholder pride to protect
otter populations.