Crocodile tears

4

Curious how the stuff of Animal Planet becomes a mainstream media issue and everyone in the animal kingdom a spokesperson for it. First, it was the tiger - when the Sariska poaching incident came up, our friends in the media announced doomsday for the big cat. Sorry, even before that it was the elephant - Veerappan and his ivory oligarchy won Jumbo a number of page-one anchors. And then we forgot about them. Now, because tigers are so last year and elephants scarcely a blip on the radar, media melancholia has shifted to the knob-nosed, fish-eating crocodilian we know as the Gharial. Before we wait to find out what's behind the mysterious gharial deaths in the National Chambal River Sanctuary, we already have hyper-informed, scoop-hungry television anchors beating their chests in public and writing the ancient reptile's epitaph. Before you can say....