Bihar's Ganga the Otter Goes Global

(Photo: IOSF)

The ‘Ganga’ story travelled to as far as the United Kingdom, where the International Otter Survival Fund (IOSF) has now renamed one of its latest rescued otters after Bihar’s famed survivor. “We were flooded with suggestions from wildlife trusts across the globe on naming the little otter,” the IOSF website said. “After some discussion, we named the young otter ‘Ganga’, as the Bihar story inspired us.”

The suggestion was made by Rahul Kumar who shared the Wildlife Trust of India's (WTI) Ganga the Otter Project with IOSF. Rahul told us that back in 2000 in India, a smooth-coated otter cub was rescued from poachers by a man called Sushant Dey (known locally as Rana). Rana handraised the cub and cared for it over 8 years and it was called 'Ganga' after the holy river of India in which it was rehabilitated in 2008.- IOSF