12 Giant Aquatic Creatures Found in Indian Subcontinent
The Indian River Monsters are known as Ganges Shark, Mugger Crocodile,Goonch Catfish and Golden Mahseer. Water covers two thirds of our planet earth and undersea is incredibly diverse with unusual sea creatures such as Fish, crab, frogfish, snails, Squid,octopus and many species of marine arthropods. Marine Life and Coral Reefs habitats is home to many aquatic creatures including Fish, Seabirds,Marine invertebrates,Marine mammals and Marine reptile.
Top 10 Giant Aquatic Creatures and River Monsters of India
Indian River Dolphin
The South Asian river dolphin is split into two subspecies Ganges river dolphin and Indus river dolphin, primarily found in the Ganges and Brahmaputra Rivers and their tributaries. Ganges river dolphins are the National Aquatic animal of India and are native to the freshwater river systems of India.
Ganges Shark
The Ganges sharks is a critically endangered species of Shark found in the Ganges River and the Brahmaputra River of India. Ganges Shark and common bull shark are freshwater river systems requiem shark commonly found worldwide in warm, shallow waters along coasts and in rivers.
Mugger Crocodile
The mugger crocodile is one of the 3 Crocodilians found in India, the others being the Gharial and the saltwater crocodile. Mugger crocodiles are another river monster found throughout the Indian subcontinent along with the saltwater crocodile, Bhitarkanika mangrove forest is the world’s largest salt water crocodile home.
Tortoise
The Indian star tortoise is one of the species of tortoise found in the river forest of India, being others are Olive Ridley Turtles,Indian Flapshell Turtle and Indian Black Turtle. Olive ridley sea turtles are a medium-sized species of sea turtle primarily found in the Indian Oceans.
Smooth Coated Otter
The smooth-coated otter species is found in fresh water,wetlands and seasonal swamps, rivers, lakes, and rice paddies of the Indian Subcontinent. Smooth-coated otter was featured on the BBC documentary called Planet Earth entitled as Fresh Water predator.
Goonch Catfish
The Goonch catfish is distributed in the Indus drainage in India and known as one of the river monster of Indian Sub-Continent. Kali River Goonch attacks were a series of fatal attacks on human and captured by Jeremy Wade on the Animal Planet series River Monsters. Image Source: River-monsters/wiki/Goonch_Catfish
Coral Reef Snakes
The coral reef snakes are found in warm coastal waters from the Indian Ocean and one of the venomous elapid snakes that inhabit marine environments. Stokes’ sea snake found in coastal areas from west India.
Indian Mottled Eel
The Indian mottled eel is a subspecies of eel found throughout the Indian subcontinent and valued as a food fish. Anguilla bengalensis lives in fresh waters along with Mahseer and Goonch.
Golden Mahseer
The golden mahseer is an endangered species of cyprinid found in the Himalayan region and the largest species of mahseer. Golden Mahseer is India’s fabulous freshwater fish and Himalayan rivers are indeed the perfect place for river monsters in India.
Dugong
The Dugong is large grey mammals which spend their entire lives in the sea. Marine National Park of Gulf of Kutch is an isolated breeding ground in India along with in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands and is the state animal of Andaman territory.
Sharpnose Stingray
The sharpnose stingray is a little known species of stingray found in the Indian Oceans and most commonly found over sandy areas of Ganjam in Odisha,in the Ganges River. Indian Ocean and Pacific Ocean are the range of the stingray extends from the Indian subcontinent.
Giant Guitarfish
The giant guitarfish is largest species in the skate order and believed to range throughout a large part of the Indo-Pacific ocean. Giant guitarfish feeds on bivalves, crabs, lobsters, squid and small fish.
