A lot of water under the boat, as they say, and a lot of eggs and baby crocs resulting from these survey and egg collection trips went to the Croc Bank in those early days. Eventually close to a thousand of them went back to the wild.

So, after twenty-five years (actually more, since the croc work all started in 1970 at the Madras Snake Park) what is the present status of our crocs? Here it is in brief, the numbers are rough, more as indicators than census figures. Today gharial are pretty safe in two strongholds: the Chambal River (Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh) and Girwa River (Uttar Pradesh). In these two places there are about 1500 wild gharial. But there are no other places where more than tiny populations of gharial can survive. They are constrained by their need for deep flowing river habitat with plenty of fish – and no fishermen with nylon gillnets!

In India, the salt-water crocodile has only one stronghold: Bhitarkanika Sanctuary, Orissa, where there are close to a thousand. Scattered, small populations are reported from the Sunderbans (West Bengal and Bangladesh) which could recover and grow, parts of the Andamans and Nicobars and Southwestern Sri Lanka. The future for "salties" is not too good - they are limited by their bad reputation and need for undisturbed mangroves and freshwater marshes for nesting - prime paddy land already mostly used by humans.

Only the mugger, with its amazing adaptability has the chance to continue its old existence. It’s a low profile croc, that usually doesn't grow too big and can even live in sewage treatment ponds. In India we have close to six thousand mugger in captivity (with nowhere to release them) and perhaps two to three thousand in the wild. The Moyar River and the Amaravathi Reservoir in Tamil Nadu plus Hiran Lake in Gir Sanctuary, Gujarat, are the mugger's last strongholds. There are also small but important populations in most other states. Sri Lanka still has thousands of muggers. Ah, what pleasure it is, shining a torch on a lake with a hundred or more glowing eyes beaming back at you!

It feels good to have been part of those early days of croc conservation. Reptiles had few friends then and it feels even better to see how many people are turned on by "herps" today in India. But no time for complacency! Threats to crocs and wild habitats in India and south Asia as a whole are very real. If a Government can coolly displace tens of thousands of people by building a dam how can we expect crocodiles to fare any better? There's still plenty to do, so hang in there!