For inhabitants of the Sundarban islands, the fear of crocodiles lurking in the estuaries is second only to that of tigers. But while there are some estimates about the number of the big cats in the Mangrove forests, no one knows how many crocodiles prowl the waters. To rectify this gap in information, the Forest Department will launch the first-ever exercise to estimate the number of crocodiles next week. Experts are relying on the fact that crocodiles, being cold-blooded animals, emerge from the waters and bask in the winter sun at this time of the year. “Crocodiles are cold-blooded animals and will come out of the waters if the temperature drops below 21 degrees Celsius. The weather reports and past experience suggest that the temperature will be lower during the days that the survey has been planned,” Pradeep Vyas, Director of the Sundarban Biosphere Reserve, told The Hindu on Tuesday. The enumeration exercise to estimate the density of crocodiles will be conducted from January 15 to 18. Thirty-one teams, which will include two personnel from the Forest Department and a member from the several NGOs working in the region, will be involved in the collection of data for the survey, he added. Dr. Vyas said that after consultations with the experts from theIUCN,the survey would be based on direct sightings along transects and nearly 1,000 km of the river banks would be covered.