DERA GHAZI KHAN: The Sulaiman Range between the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Punjab provinces is home to many rare species but many of the myths emanating from the region are still waiting to be unraveled since long.

One of them is the presence of the mugger crocodiles, also known as marsh crocodiles, in the eyewitnesses’ accounts of the locals around the Mat Khund. Historically, the species was found in Sindh and Balochistan in small lakes formed by perennial water flowingfrom the bed of seasonal Kaha river in Tuman Gorchani of district Rajanpur.

Sherbaz Chaang Gorchani, a resident of Tuman Gorchani and a Border Military Police personnel, told this scribe that four years back one mugger crocodile was killed near Baghoonwali Dhand (lake) located in the bed of Kaha river near Mat Khund in Tuman Gorchani. He also shared a picture of the killed crocodile.

To verify the reports, this scribe visited the area with a guide provided by, former deputy speaker of Punjab Assembly Sher Ali Gorchani, a leader in the area, along with local historians, Malik Saleem Bhutta and Ehsan Yaqoob Khosa, to find evidence of the killing of crocodile in Tuman Gorchani, miles away from mighty the river Indus, the natural habitat of marsh crocodiles.

There are two prominent lakes in the bed of hill torrent Kaha or river Kaha, Angraizwali Dhand and Baghoonwali Dhand near Mat Khund.

In Seraiki language, Baghoon means crocodile and Dhand means lake but local Balochi speaking tribal people used to call crocodile Gowindo, whose etymology reportedly leads to ancient Sanskrit words of Ghantika and Ghondo. According to a Balochi dictionary, Gowindo means a crocodile or an alligator.

In Tuman Gorchani, we met Naseer Macchi, a resident of village Loundi Saidawn, who was a witness to the killing of the mugger crocodile near Baghoonwali Dhand. He claimed the crocodile had an injury in one of its webbed feet. It was lying senseless outside the Baghoonwali Dhand and the locals killed it by stoning.

Another eyewitness mugger crocodile was elderly Haider Thalwani, a resident of Mat Khund, who claimed that Gowindos (crocodiles) were present in Baghoonwali Dhand. He said the Gowindos used to come out of the Dhand during the daylight in the winter and night of summers and there were several Gowindos in the Dhand. He said Gowindos are fish, found in abundance there.

It is pertinent to mention that residents of village Loundi Saidawn and the rest of the area used to catch fish from these Dhands with nets.

The reports of the presence of mugger crocodiles in the mountains of Sulaiman Range have raised many questions, including the most pertinent one that how they reached the mountains. In the folklore, it is claimed that one wing of the mighty Indus was used to flow near the foothills of the Sulaiman Range in ancient times and during floods and rainy season, waters of Kaha seasonal river and the Indus used to mixed with each other, making it possible for mugger crocodiles, fish and turtles to remain in the Kaha river after the floods would recede.

Depiction of the crocodile on seals excavated from Harappa and Mohenjo Daro is evidence that they were found in abundance when the Indus Civilization thrived.

Wildlife Department Deputy Director Naveed Tariq was not aware of presence of mugger crocodile in the lake on the bed of Kaha river in the Sulaiman Range in Tuman Gorchani, Rajanpur.

Former member of WWF-Pakistan and zoologist Umer Waqas told Dawn that crocodiles was originally a resident of the Indus. He maintained that the presence of muggercrocodiles in lakes in the mountains in the bed of the historical Kaha river should be researched by the wildlife department and the WWF.

A report on Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) of the UN says in one of reports that no recent survey data is available on mugger crocodiles (Crocodylus palustris) in Pakistan. “This species was considered endangered or very rare in the early 1980s (Groombridge 1982). The most recent survey was conducted by the Zoological Survey of Pakistan during 1997. Five hundred specimens were recorded at Makhi and Baqar Dhand of the Chotiiari reservoir. Plans for the winter survey during the 1999-2000 season are underway. The Sindh Wildlife Department recorded one thousand specimens in 1999 in Sanghar district. The species is now considered safe in Sindh. Crocodile recovery has been associated with a conservation project in the Deh Akro no. 2 Taluka Nawabshah. The project began in 1983, and current estimates place the crocodile population at about 2000 (Ahmad 1990). In Balochistan, the widespread killing of crocodiles has threatened the majority of the local populations. Many crocodiles were reported killed in the River Hingol during a period of low water in 1986-1987 (Khan 1989). Principal threats include killing for sale of the hide, killing by fishermen, as well as killing for the collection of specimens for laboratories and museums (Khan 1988).”

However, the convention was silent about the presence of mugger crocodiles in Sulaiman Range of Dera Ghazi Khan. The wildlife authorities should launch a survey in the region to probe the witnesses’ reports of the sighting of the crocodiles.

Published in Dawn, April 19th, 2021