Wildlife and People

Dekho ‘Mugger’ Pyaar Se

Look, but with love

In collaboration with: VNC India
Where: Anand and Kheda districts, Gujarat, India
When: 2025

In a cluster of villages across Gujarat's Anand and Kheda districts, people and mugger crocodiles share the same lakes with a calm that defies every rulebook for living beside an apex predator. A board by the water reads ‘Dekho Mugger Pyaar Se’, a pun on ‘dekho magar pyaar se’: look, but with love. Beneath it a mugger basks, mouth open, while villagers pass without a second glance.

The mugger (Crocodylus palustris) is listed as Vulnerable, yet thrives here, on a coexistence built from lived experience and empathy rather than fear, and from the patient, community-rooted work of the Voluntary Nature Conservancy (VNC) and researchers like Vishal, a local raised among these animals and now on the IUCN Crocodile Specialist Group.

Each year the team counts crocodiles at night by the ‘eyeshine method’, sweeping torchlight for the glow of reflected eyes; the 2025 census recorded 549, up from about 100 in 2015. The threats are quieter now: plastic in the water, roads undercut by nesting burrows. But in a child watching a cartoon crocodile painted on a village wall, there is hope.

Pale heads of pearl millet stand in a dense field against dark trees — Pearl millet ripening in the fields of central Gujarat.

Two elderly men cycle along a village road, one carrying a large bundle of green fodder — Fodder heads home by bicycle along a village road.

A black and yellow Gujarati sign reading Dekho Magar Pyaar Se stands by a lake, a mugger basking on the grass beneath it — ‘Dekho Mugger Pyaar Se’, placed by the Petli gram panchayat. At the water's edge beneath it, a mugger basks.

Close-up of a mugger's head, jaws open, resting on grass beside a discarded plastic cup — The threats are quieter now: a discarded cup beside a basking mugger.

The ridged tail of a mugger lying in grass, a plastic bag caught against it — Plastic caught against a mugger's tail.

A mugger glides low through golden water, only its back and head above the surface — A mugger glides across the lake at dusk.

Vishal sits on a low wall by the lake, the Dekho Magar Pyaar Se sign behind him — Vishal, raised among these animals, now serves on the IUCN Crocodile Specialist Group.

Two men lean over a lakeside wall at night, scanning the water with torches — The night census: torches sweep the lake for the glow of reflected eyes.

A young mugger lit by torchlight in dark water near a grassy bank — A young mugger caught in torchlight. The 2025 census counted 549, up from about 100 in 2015.

Vishal crouches in long grass at night, shining a torch into a den — Vishal inspects a den. Nesting burrows can undercut village roads.

A small child at night looks at a cheerful cartoon crocodile painted on a long yellow wall — A child meets the village's cartoon crocodile, painted on a wall that welcomes cleanliness and waves goodbye to dirt.

A reminder that this world is ours to share, not to conquer.

Dekho ‘Mugger’ Pyaar Se

More From This Story