Otters spotted in Kashmir waters, and residents are both thrilled and wary

Hugam, Indian-administered Kashmir – Nasir Amin Bhat, 17, was hardly ankle-deep successful the h2o erstwhile his schoolhouse person and neighbour Adil Ahmad shouted from the riverbank connected a breezy summertime evening successful May.

“Turn back! There’s thing successful the water.”

Across the Lidder, a tributary of the Jhelum River, successful Hugam colony of Indian-administered Kashmir’s Anantnag district, a Eurasian otter (Lutra lutra) plunged into the glacial waters and started paddling furiously against the existent with each 4 limbs.

“I had nary thought what it was,” Bhat, a precocious schoolhouse student, told Al Jazeera, “but I grabbed my smartphone and turned connected the camera.”

The grainy, nine-second video shows the carnal with a fur overgarment – classified arsenic “near threatened” connected the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List – gliding retired of the h2o and jumping onto the riverbank.

After a fewer clumsy steps, the semiaquatic animal, which tin scope elevations of 3,660 metres (12,000 feet) successful the Himalayas during the summer, disappears down a heavy grove of bushes, bringing the video to an uneventful end.

Eurasian otters utilized to thrive on the banks of the Lidder River, but rampant operation forced the semiaquatic carnal to retreat [Jehangir Ali/Al Jazeera]

Long believed to person gone extinct, Eurasian otters look to beryllium showing signs of resurgence successful Kashmir, with 3 individuals spotted by Indian wildlife officers successful 2 places since 2023.

The accidental sightings person excited environmentalists and wildlife conservationists portion raising hopes of a amended aboriginal for the Himalayan region’s fragile freshwater ecosystems, which person been battered by clime alteration successful caller years.

‘Habitat has improved’

Indian wildlife biologist Nisarg Prakash believes the sighting of otters successful Kashmir was an indicator of high-quality aquatic habitats.

“The reappearance of otters mightiness mean that poaching has travel down oregon the situation has improved, and possibly some successful immoderate cases,” Prakash, whose enactment focuses connected otters successful confederate parts of India, told Al Jazeera.

Protected nether India’s Wildlife Protection Act, otters were erstwhile wide distributed crossed northbound India, including the Himalayan foothills, the Gangetic plains and parts of the northeast.

A peer-reviewed survey by IUCN successful November past twelvemonth noted that the Eurasian otter, known among Kashmiri locals arsenic “voddur”, was recovered successful h2o bodies of Lidder and Jehlum valleys, including Wular Lake, 1 of Asia’s largest freshwater lakes.

Hugam colony successful Anantnag district, Indian-administered Kashmir [Jehangir Ali/Al Jazeera]

However, implicit the years, their colonisation became “patchy and fragmented owed to situation loss, contamination and quality disturbances”, says Khursheed Ahmad, a elder wildlife idiosyncratic astatine the Sher-e-Kashmir University of Agricultural Sciences and Technology (SKUAST-K).

Ahmad said that, owed to situation alterations from quality activities and the encroachment of their perfect habitats on riverbanks and different h2o bodies, Eurasian otters retreated and became confined to areas that were slightest accessible to humans.

“Although they were not extinct, sightings and occurrences had go highly uncommon and they were ne'er documented,” said Ahmad, who heads the Division of Wildlife Sciences astatine SKUAST-K.

Less than 2 years ago, a probe squad led by Ahmad accidentally stumbled connected otters during a survey connected musk cervid successful Gurez, a vale of lush meadows and towering peaks divided into 2 by the Kishanganga River on the Line of Control, the de facto borderline betwixt India and Pakistan successful the Himalayas.

Past midnight connected August 6, 2023, 2 idiosyncratic otters were captured successful a riverine situation astatine an altitude of 2,600 metres (8,530 feet) successful the vale adjacent the 330MW Kishanganga Hydro Electric Project built by India pursuing a prolonged ineligible conflict with Pakistan astatine the Permanent Court of Arbitration successful The Hague.

After that sighting, the probe squad focused connected documenting the beingness of otters connected the Indian broadside of Kashmir.

“Unfortunately, owed to dense disturbance from sportfishing and different section and paramilitary activities, nary further beingness was documented,” the IUCN survey notes.

Ahmed said Bhat’s video is lone the 2nd photographic grounds of otters successful Kashmir.

‘Too terrified to spell there’

But successful the ample farming colony of Hugam, comprising immoderate 300 families, residents are some excited and worried.

At the ace of dawn, Muneera Bano, a homemaker, wakes to the flutter of crows cawing furiously connected the willow trees lining the tributary’s banks extracurricular her location successful Hugam, located immoderate 58km (36 miles) southbound of the main metropolis of Srinagar.

Bano has stopped washing apparel and utensils connected the riverbank aft the otter was discovered, thing she had done for years.

“There are underwater caves [in the tributary], and it is hiding successful 1 of them. When it comes retired successful the morning, crows spot it and they commencement screaming. I americium excessively terrified to spell there,” she said.

Bhat, the teen who filmed the video, said helium often utilized to bathe successful the tributary’s glacial waters and sometimes besides caught fish. “Now I can’t adjacent deliberation astir going there,” helium said.

Nasir Amin Bhat captured the Eurasian otter connected his mobile telephone connected May 28, 2025, erstwhile helium was astir to instrumentality a bath successful the Lidder [Jehangir Ali/Al Jazeera]

The grainy video led to rumours astir the beingness of crocodiles successful the tributary, prompting Indian wildlife officials to acceptable up a camera trap, which confirmed that it was a Eurasian otter – besides seen successful Bhat’s video – and not a crocodile.

Some wildlife officials adjacent bathed successful the stream successful the beingness of colony elders to show that the h2o was wholly safe.

Although otters bash not airs immoderate menace to humans, they tin crook unpredictable, particularly erstwhile adjacent to humans. But scientists accidental these animals tin turn accustomed to the beingness of humans.

Wildlife biologist Prakash said alternatively than being frightened oregon fearful, curiosity astir otters tin marque them a show to beryllium enjoyed portion watching them food oregon swim.

“Otters are mostly progressive astir dawn, dusk and aft dark, though they tin sometimes beryllium seen during daytime arsenic well. Eurasian otters mostly prey connected fish, eels, and sometimes, waterfowl,” helium said.

Kashmiri husbandman Wasim Ahmad remembers a summertime time successful the aboriginal 1990s erstwhile helium was connected the mode backmost from schoolhouse situated on the banks of Doodhganga, a large tributary of the Jhelum River.

As Ahmad, present successful his 40s, turned the corner, helium saw a ample procession of radical walking jubilantly. One antheral was holding a dormant otter portion different was walking a canine connected a leash.

Bagh-e-Mehtab successful Srinagar is location to a assemblage of poachers who, successful the past, made a surviving by selling skins of animals specified arsenic cats, otters, and different animals. With stricter carnal payment laws successful unit successful India now, the assemblage has fixed up the aged profession.

“Our elders warned america that otters skinned the children and ate them raw,” said Ahmad, who was successful ninth people then. “But arsenic I grew up, I didn’t travel crossed adjacent 1 idiosyncratic who was harmed by otters. It was fundamentally a maneuver to support the children distant from the river.”

Ahmad, the wildlife scientist, said the reappearance of otters successful Kashmir was a affirmative sign.

“Now we should spot to it that the caller situation is protected from uncontrolled pollution, garbage accumulation, accrued c emissions and situation degradation. Addressing these challenges is important for their conservation and wellbeing,” helium told Al Jazeera.