Sundarbans: Summer May 2015: Water Monitor with the kill- Sudhanyakhali

[Saktipada Panigrahi]

Canon 550D, Canon 75-300mm
The image quality is poor. I intend to show how it survives in this mangrove.

[Mrudul Godbole]

Nice to see it with a kill. Is that a fish? Looks bigger than a fish. Good record. Thanks for sharing.

[Saktipada Panigrahi]

Madam Mrudul,
Its is an Indian Carp (Species: Mrigal, Cirrhinus cirrhosus), weighing about 3 kg or so; found in rivers and sweet water tanks. It lives at the bottom layer of water. It was hunted in the sweet water tank at Sudhanyakhali. We spent two hot afternoons, but the King Cobra couple did not turn up for drinking, it might be true that one has been killed by the Mongoose, as the field staff said.

Lest I forget, I may tell you that last time (Jan 2015) how fortunate you had been to stay over the hood of a giant Indian Cobra (Naja Kautia), about 6 feet long, which had been peacefully living in a hole in the ground beneath your semi-first floor wooden room.The kitchen is being renovated now. And when they dug up that area, your Cobra came out, was captured by foresters and released in the forest sometime before we reached Sajnekhali in May, 2015.
Kind regards,
SaktiWild

[Mrudul Godbole]

Wow a cobra staying just below the rooms. It would have been great to sight it :). Good to know they released it safely in the forest. Was the guest house crowded this time also? Look forward to more from Sunderbans.

[Sabyasachi Patra]

Nice action documented. After watching this image people can get a very nice idea about the food habits of the monitor lizard.

Sad to hear that the Naja kaouthia lost its home. Sajnekhali is a really nice place with cobra below us and palm civet over our head.

[Roopak Gangadharan]

Nice to see this shakti da, I have never seen one catch or eat a whole fish. there is one resident some where in the back yard of my native, which knows the place where the maid will dump the head and other parts of the fish and 10-15 minutes after she does, it come out slowly before the crows get there. They scavenge around human habitation in these parts and have grown in numbers in the last 8-10 years as people have stopped killing them.

TFS
Roopak


TFS
Roopak

[Murugan Anantharaman]

Nice action documented Saktida... The fish is a large one almost reaching up to the front claws of the monitor. The heavy weight of the fish is evident from the fact that the lizard is dragging it along the forest floor..... how wonderful a feeling it must have been to discover a cobra living just under one's feet... When we were kids we used to go to my uncle's place in tamilnadu, an old house it was. When they brought down the bungalow for renovation and dug up the place many years later, they discovered 3 snakes living there. Our family being ardent hindus didn't kill the snake but left it in the forest away from town... some memories, thanks for helping me revisit those Saktida..... Thanks for sharing.