Kendrapada: Death of five saltwater crocodiles in and around Bhitarkanika National Park within 27 days has raised concerns over the reptiles’ safety. The latest casualty was a four-foot-two-inch female crocodile whose carcass was found in Hansua river near Badakota village on Tuesday.Locals spotted the carcass in the morning and informed forest officials, who retrieved it for examination. A postmortem was conducted to determine the cause of death.Divisional forest officer (Bhitarkanika) Varadaraj Gaonkar said veterinary doctors performed autopsies on the dead crocodiles and sent viscera samples to Centre for Wildlife Health at Odisha University of Agriculture and Technology (OUAT), Bhubaneswar. “We will know the exact cause of the deaths after receiving the reports,” Gaonkar said.According to the Jan 2026 reptile census, Bhitarkanika has 1,858 saltwater crocodiles. The latest incident was the fifth reported in the area since Oct 6.On Oct 25, the carcass of a six-foot-two-inch female crocodile was found in Luna river near Gopinathpur village in Kendrapada district. A day earlier, a seven-foot-long female crocodile was found dead in Brahmani river near Bengamari village under Dangamal forest range.Forest officials retrieved a three-foot-seven-inch female crocodile from Hansua river near Badakota on Oct 22. On Oct 6, a 14-foot-long male crocodile, aged around 20 years, was found dead in Brahmani river near Nagada village in Bhitarkanika.“We are losing potential adult males and females. If it continues, gradually we will lose crocodiles. What we have achieved in the last 50 years could be jeopardised,” said Sudhakar Kar, herpetologist and former Odisha forest department wildlife researcher, calling for concerted efforts by locals and the forest department to protect the estuarine crocodiles and their mangrove habitat.