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Mugger Mission Documented More Than 40 Fish Species Along the Bharja River

Wild mugger crocodile partly submerged in muddy river water in India
Conservation · Habitat protection

A March 2026 update from the Applied Environmental Research Foundation’s Mugger Mission describes conservation work along the Bharja River in Maharashtra, India, where mugger crocodiles (Crocodylus palustris) live in a landscape extending from mountain forest and farmland to brackish reaches and coastal mangroves. The project reports that conflicts between crocodiles and local communities have historically been rare in this landscape and has increasingly focused on the river’s fish diversity as part of the ecological basis for coexistence.

More than 40 fish species spanned three salinity zones

Surveys in the Bharja River documented more than 40 fish species across three broad salinity zones: freshwater upstream, moderately saline and brackish middle reaches, and highly saline mangrove areas near the coast. The project team reports that fish communities change along this gradient, with some species restricted to particular habitats and others occurring across several zones. It interprets this diversity as a stable natural food base for mugger crocodiles.

The project treats the river as one connected system

The Mugger Mission uses a “Core-to-Shore” approach that treats mountain forests, streams, rivers and coastal mangroves as one connected system. Through community partnerships and voluntary conservation measures, AERF reports that it has helped conserve more than 1,000 acres (approximately 405 hectares) of mangrove forest and salt-ingressed paddy fields, together with about 500 acres (approximately 200 hectares) of terrestrial and mountain forest.

The project plans to expand its fish surveys and map how species are distributed across the freshwater, brackish and saline sections of the Bharja River as part of its wider river-conservation work.

Sources and image credit

  1. Gawade, A. (2026, March 11). Beneath the Surface of Coexistence. The Mugger Mission: Securing Future of River Giants. Applied Environmental Research Foundation (AERF) / GlobalGiving.

Image: Kandukuru Nagarjun / Wikimedia Commons — wild mugger crocodile in the Chambal riverine ecosystem at Dholpur, Rajasthan, India, 27 February 2022; representative image, not an individual from the Bharja River project · CC BY 2.0 · Source

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