Otters come back to home

  Lutra perspicillata (Smooth coated otter) returned to home

Otters are members of a large mammalian family ‘Mustelidae.’ They are the principal predators of the aquatic environments and suitable indicators of the health of a wetland ecosystem as they are sensitive to degradation along the food chain. Serving as effective symbol of environmental quality otters are endorsed as ‘Wetland Ambassadors.’ Three species of otters viz; Smooth coated otter (Lutra perspicillata), Eurasian otter (Luta lutra) and Oriental small-clawed otter (Aonyx cinereus) are found in India (Asghar Nawab and Parikshit Gautam 2008). The smooth-coated otter occurs along the large rivers and lakes, in mangrove forests along the coast and estuaries, and in Southeast Asia it even uses the rice fields for foraging

There is a nostalgic or even a rebellious streak in the return of the smooth-coated otters to their natural habitat in the mangrove zone of the Ashtamudi Lake. Three decades ago, it was here that the species, deemed most endangered by the IUCN, lived, bred, fished and died. That is, before they were forced to leave their home, after the mangroves were cleared to accommodate an adventure park project of the Tourism Department.Now the otters are back home to Asramam areas of Ashtamudi lake. They could be seen diving into the waters and surfacing soon with fish in their mouth to nibble into while floating on the water.

 After their displacement following the clearing of the mangroves, the otters just disappeared and it is not known where they went to or where they have now come from.