“The otter was caught in a fishing net spread by a local person in Beki River just outside the protected area boundary. The fisherman informed the Forest Department and our animal keepers, who then reached the site and disentangled the animal from the fishing net,” said Dr Bhaskar Choudhury, Assistant Manager, WTI.

“The otter was alert and had no traumatic injury; so it was released a few hours later, a little upstream from the site of rescue.”

The Asian small clawed otter is listed in Appendix II of the CITES and in Schedule II of the Indian Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972. Although widely found in south and southeast Asia, the conservation status of this species was upgraded from Near Threatened to Vulnerable in the IUCN Red List 2008, as its population is believed to be decreasing. In India, the distribution range of the species is similar to that of the smooth coated otter and the Eurasian otter, being found in the Western Ghats and in the Northeast. They were once common in the mangroves of east Calcutta and Sunderbans but are now believed to be locally extirpated. (source: IUCN)

Threats to the species include loss of habitat, reduction in prey population as a result of unsustainable fishing practices, pollution, and trade in its pelt.

Last year, WTI had supported a Rapid Action Project to rehabilitate a smooth coated otter in Vikramshila Gangetic Dolphin Sanctuary in Bihar. The otter, rescued as a pup from poachers, was successfully hand-raised and soft-released by a team of researchers from the TM Bhagalpur University.

“This however, was the first case of otter rescue handled by IFAW-WTI in India. The otter could have perhaps got lured to the net on seeing the fish caught in it. We are not aware of any records of otters dying after being trapped in fishing nets in this area,” Dr Choudhury added.

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