Yesterday afternoon when i returned home, i heard my aunt talking about something like, “......let it starve.” I asked about it and came to know that a juvenile “gosap” (monitor lizard) had fallen into a cemented pit 2 days ago and could not climb up the pit till now. I enquired about the location and went straight there. The lizard was still alive but a little less energetic. I know only 2days starvation wont be a problem for reptiles but if direct sunlight hit the lizard for full day, that could be fatal. Lizards cant regulate their body heat internally and long exposure of direct sunlight will increase their body temperature to deadly level. I picked up the lizard and released it outside.
That incident made me think about the general behaviour of people towards monitor lizards. And i found it to be more promising than the snakes. Most of the people think that each and every snake is harmful and should be killed at first sight but for monitor lizards, it is somewhat neutral. People consider them harmful because monitor lizards can cause a great damage in poultry farms. Monitor Other than that people actually don’t care about them too much. Sometimes people even encourage the existence of monitor lizards in their locality ‘cause they believe that if monitor lizards stay in the locality, the locality would be free of venomous snakes as snake consist a part of their diet. A few tribal people consume monitor lizards as source of protein. But the particular trait of human which devastated the population of monitor lizards and pushed them on the brink of extinction is their liking of monitor lizards skin for leather trade. Fortunately they are now under legal protection. That helped them revive their population.
In our locality two types of monitor lizards are found. The bigger one is Water Monitor (Varanus salvator) and the relatively smaller one is Bengal Monitor (Varanus bengalensis). Being bigger the water monitor dominates the environment and are numerous than the Bengal Monitor. Water Monitor can grow upto a length of 2.5mtrs. very few of us actually know that this is the largest lizard on India and third largest lizard of the world. These lizards are semi-aquatic in nature. They are associated with water bodies and water channels. They roam in the water ways and relatively less frequented areas on the bank of the water bodies like backyard gardens, old ruins etc even inside the city. Generally they avoid people. They are diurnal in nature and come out to hunt mainly at dawn and noon when the human activity is less. Insects, fish, crab, turtle, birds, eggs, snakes and even small mammals consist their diet. They even feed on carrions which helps to keep the waterways clean. They are very adept swimmer. They even do mating inside water while swimming like crocodiles. This behaviour can be seen in the months of monsoon. In the localities where human interaction with the Water Monitor is more and people are more tolerant towards them, they even break inside the house to steal chicken and ducks. They can walk around fearlessly because they don’t have any predator when they are full grown but they have much reason to worry when they are juvenile. Wild cats, mongoose, hawks, egrets etc all prey on them.
As human encroachment on nature is increasing, the wildlife is facing a greater challenge. But a few species have succeeded to reap a bounty of this bad situation. They have adapted themselves to live with human in the modified environment. Water monitor is one of them. As people have built new irrigation channels and drainage systems, they have colonised these new areas and increased their spread in inland areas. This actually helped the species not only to survive but to thrive in these changing conditions.
That incident made me think about the general behaviour of people towards monitor lizards. And i found it to be more promising than the snakes. Most of the people think that each and every snake is harmful and should be killed at first sight but for monitor lizards, it is somewhat neutral. People consider them harmful because monitor lizards can cause a great damage in poultry farms. Monitor Other than that people actually don’t care about them too much. Sometimes people even encourage the existence of monitor lizards in their locality ‘cause they believe that if monitor lizards stay in the locality, the locality would be free of venomous snakes as snake consist a part of their diet. A few tribal people consume monitor lizards as source of protein. But the particular trait of human which devastated the population of monitor lizards and pushed them on the brink of extinction is their liking of monitor lizards skin for leather trade. Fortunately they are now under legal protection. That helped them revive their population.
In our locality two types of monitor lizards are found. The bigger one is Water Monitor (Varanus salvator) and the relatively smaller one is Bengal Monitor (Varanus bengalensis). Being bigger the water monitor dominates the environment and are numerous than the Bengal Monitor. Water Monitor can grow upto a length of 2.5mtrs. very few of us actually know that this is the largest lizard on India and third largest lizard of the world. These lizards are semi-aquatic in nature. They are associated with water bodies and water channels. They roam in the water ways and relatively less frequented areas on the bank of the water bodies like backyard gardens, old ruins etc even inside the city. Generally they avoid people. They are diurnal in nature and come out to hunt mainly at dawn and noon when the human activity is less. Insects, fish, crab, turtle, birds, eggs, snakes and even small mammals consist their diet. They even feed on carrions which helps to keep the waterways clean. They are very adept swimmer. They even do mating inside water while swimming like crocodiles. This behaviour can be seen in the months of monsoon. In the localities where human interaction with the Water Monitor is more and people are more tolerant towards them, they even break inside the house to steal chicken and ducks. They can walk around fearlessly because they don’t have any predator when they are full grown but they have much reason to worry when they are juvenile. Wild cats, mongoose, hawks, egrets etc all prey on them.
As human encroachment on nature is increasing, the wildlife is facing a greater challenge. But a few species have succeeded to reap a bounty of this bad situation. They have adapted themselves to live with human in the modified environment. Water monitor is one of them. As people have built new irrigation channels and drainage systems, they have colonised these new areas and increased their spread in inland areas. This actually helped the species not only to survive but to thrive in these changing conditions.
