After a seven-month wait, wildlife biologist Atul Sinai Borker saw it. As dusk melted into darkness, the Valvanti river mirrored the monsoon skyline and coconut groves of Goa. Then an otter swam out, shattering the water’s stillness.

A mechanical engineer by training, 29-year-old Borker’s interest lies in small mammals. In 2013, he made a professional switch to wildlife conservation research on otters after working in a multinational software company for six years. In January this year, he set up a research station in Sanquelim, in the picturesque backwaters of Goa. From here he leads a young team of otter researchers under Wildotters.com.

Why study otters? According to scientists and conservationists, these shy and elusive creatures are carnivores at the top of the food chain of wetland and river ecosystems. They are “indicator" species, vulnerable to habitat degradation and pollution. “The presence of otters is a sign of clean rivers. They remove the weak and sick fish stock, keeping the ecosystem healthy, and transfer nutrients from water to land and vice versa," says Borker.

Otters are semi-aquatic mammals with a long evolutionary history. They have weasel-like ancestors and have a waterproof coat, paddle feet, a long and thick muscular tail and a streamlined body suited for hunting in the water.

India has three of the five species found across Asia: smooth-coated otter, Eurasian otter and Asian small-clawed otter. All three are protected under India’s Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972. They can be found across the country.

The Asian small-clawed otters are the smallest in the world. On the day Borker sighted the otter swimming across the river, from a vantage point on Valvanti’s high bank, this writer was by his side. The light was fading, but Borker made no mistake. “A smooth-coated otter," he said, excited, as the animal’s small head jutted out at the sharp end of a long “V" trail it traced in the water.

Otters are enchanting and playful creatures with strong social bonds, and have featured over the years in children’s books, fiction and films. The classic Tarka The Otter written by Henry Williamson (1927) inspired the American conservationist Rachel Carson and British poet Ted Hughes. In 1979, a film was made of the same title, with a screenplay by Gerald Durrell and narrated by screen legend Peter Ustinov. In religion, the otter finds a place of importance. In the Zoroastrian scriptures, the otter is referred to as a holy animal; the killing of an otter is a terrible crime that brings drought and famine and has to be atoned for by performing a long list of pious deeds.

However, there have been few studies in India to know the otter’s ecology, behaviour or distribution. According to Syed Ainul Hussain, wildlife biologist at the Wildlife Institute of India (WII) and a member of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) otter specialist group, the three Indian species and their habitats have never been systematically surveyed. “Otters are difficult animals to study, therefore the investment had to be high, and the pay-offs sporadic—but the results, when they did come, were fascinating," wrote zoologist and conservationist Hans Kruuk in his book Wild Otters: Predation And Populations.

View Full Image A habitat for small-clawed otters.

We travelled to Amona, a small town in north Goa on the banks of the Mandovi. The mangroves dotting the riverbank are home to a family of otters that Borker has been tracking. Borker led the walk over a bund and pointed to several areas where the family grooms and dries itself by rolling on the mud bank, and the various passages that it uses to constantly move up and down the stream. There were no sightings in Amona, but Borker showed me fresh spraints (otter dung) and went down to collect samples.

These samples are for Borker’s teammate, Jessica Lewis, 24, studying in Pondicherry University, and a part of Wildotters.com. She is going to analyse the scat and find out what fish species the otters are eating. Her research will help Borker’s team in Goa establish which fish otters are more likely to catch; whether they are catching the economically viable ones or other varieties. “Unless we know the specifics, conservation measures will remain a half-baked idea," says Borker.

Otters share a love-hate relationship with fisherfolk. While some don’t mind otters stealing a few fish from their catch, the majority don’t like them around their fishing nets. This animosity has often led to conflict, with the otter at the receiving end.

“Many otters are killed in human-otter conflicts as they pose a threat to the fisherman’s income," says Kausalya Shenoy, an ecologist who did a study on the species in the Cauvery river in Karnataka in 2003. Otters get caught in fishing nets left overnight and drown. Shenoy also mentions overfishing along the Cauvery, which depletes the prey of otters. Dynamite fishing is another reason cited for the local decrease in otter population. In Nisargadhama and Amangala, in Karnataka, where the fish are protected and angling is a commercial sport, crackers are used to chase away otters.

Matters have been further aggravated by sand mining. “Otters are no longer spotted in stretches of the Cauvery, where sand mining is rampant," says Gopakumar Menon, managing trustee of Bengaluru-based Nityata Foundation, a non-governmental organization for otter conservation.

The day we got down to collecting scat in Goa, we saw how the mangroves were being scooped out for sand mining. Barges filled with sand dominated the riverfront, outnumbering the fishing boats. Surprisingly, the otter family is still using this stretch.

The sapping of sand from riverbanks and the thinning of vegetation decreases the number of sites where otters can groom, bask and den (known as holts). “Otters are our finest ambassadors for river ecosystems, but unfortunately not much attention is given to them. Developmental projects like dams, barrages and degradation of wetlands have affected otter populations across the country," says Menon.

Borker plans to work long-term with local communities in Goa, where he has found signs of good otter presence in places such as Amona, Banastarim, Britona and Aldona. He is also planning nature walks along the riverine habitats to popularize the species.

The youngest member of Wildotters.com, Hannah Krupa, 21, studies the smallest of all otters, the Asian small-clawed. It’s even more elusive than its bigger cousins and hardly anything is known about it in the wild. “All we know about the Asian small-clawed otter is from studies done in captive conditions," says Krupa.

This otter uses its forepaws to locate and grab prey (while other species only use their mouth). They have distinctive paws, with claws not extending beyond the pads of their partially webbed fingers and toes. The Asian small-clawed otter’s diet consists mostly of crabs, molluscs and other small aquatic animals, while the smooth-coated otter is primarily a fish eater.

Krupa’s camera traps were the first to reveal the presence of the Asian small-clawed otter in Goa, and it confirmed that the species shares a sympatric relationship with its bigger cousin.

During the course of her field study, Krupa has also documented interesting tales involving the otter. For example, during floods in Damochem village, Sattari, people used to listen for the call of otters. According to village elders, otters used to call constantly after forming a ring around bodies that got washed up on river banks.

In another tale from the past, when prey was plenty, otters used to collect their fish at a particular spot for a family feast. A lone otter would stand guard, and if people tried to steal from the catch, the otters would mount an attack. The otter on guard would be thrashed if it was found stealing fish.

Interviews with local people done by the Nityata Foundation along the Cauvery show that the otter population has been dwindling over the years. “Poaching and sand mining appear to be the biggest threat to the otter populations as several nomadic tribes are known to systematically hunt otters for the pelt trade as well as for meat," says Menon.

“In the plains of north India, otters are either extinct or getting extremely rare outside the protected areas," reported scientists Jim Conroy, Roland Melisch and Paul Chanin in their paper, The Distribution And Status Of The Eurasian Otter In Asia—A Preliminary Review, published in the IUCN Otter Specialist Group Bulletin.

Other studies too have shown that otters are becoming increasingly rare outside wildlife sanctuaries; their natural habitat, wetlands and forested river banks, are often the first to fall prey to development projects. In some Asian countries, some otter species have already become extinct. Can they be saved in India?

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