The otters were spotted shaking off water—a typical post-swim behaviour—before pausing to survey their surroundings and diving back in, noted researcher Shantanu Kuveskar
Smooth-coated Otters. Pic/Shantanu Kuveskar
Smooth-coated otters (Lutrogale perspicillata) on the move, shaking off water – a natural behaviour observed in otters after being in water for so long – were spotted at Kal River in Mangaon at Maharashtra’s Raigad district.
The otters shake off water after emerging out, wait for a while to check out the surrounding and then get back into the water again.
Naturalist and Wildlife Researcher Shantanu Kuveskar said, "I have been lucky enough to witness many rare moments from the life of otters just near our house. Sometimes, these otters also come to our backyard through the water canal."
Mumbai: Is marine life vanishing amid city's rapid transformation?
The area around the rocky outcrop off Chowpatty, where the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Memorial is to be built, has undergone alarming ecological changes over less than a decade, according to a recent biodiversity survey. The researchers suspect that a combination of human-driven and natural causes, including coastal development and climate change, are primarily to be blamed.
Located 1.07 to 1.5 nautical miles, or 1.9 to 2.7 km, off Chowpatty, the site was once a thriving underwater habitat, rich with corals, gorgonians, nudibranchs, gastropods and reef fishes. In the last week of May, marine biologist Dr Ramvilas Ghosh and Pradip Patade, co-founder of Marine Life of Mumbai and director of the Coastal Conservation Foundation (CCF), visited the proposed memorial site during low tide and conducted a two-hour-long survey. Following the visit, both experts revealed ecological changes that point to the possible local extinction of key marine species.
The experts told mid-day that several sessile (immobile) colonial organisms have vanished entirely from the site, which is an offshore extension of the rocky coastal ecosystem of South Mumbai. “The disappearance of gorgonians, especially Menella indica and Echinogorgia sp, is not just a loss of individual species; it signals a collapse in the ecological balance of the entire system,” said Dr Ghosh, whose conservation efforts are supported by the Mohammed Bin Zayed Species Conservation Fund.
The survey also formed part of CCF’s citizen science project, Marine Life of Mumbai, led by Patade. From April to May 2025, the duo conducted surveys across several key sites, from Geeta Nagar in Colaba, the stretch from Nepean Road to Haji Ali and Carter Road in Bandra West, covering significant portions of Back Bay and South Mumbai.
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