Eggs found in drain, 5 monitorlizards brought to life in a box

Time of India

28-05-2025

Mumbai: Five monitor lizard babies were born in a plastic container which served as an artificial incubator. The eggs hatched nearly four months after they had been found in a drain.
Municipal workers cleaning the drain in Mulund had found 10 eggs on Jan 26. Initially, it was not clear which species the eggs belonged to, said Pawan Sharma, president of Resqink Association for Wildlife Welfare (RAWW), an NGO that works for animal welfare. "We guessed though that the eggs were of some reptile species," said Sharma who informed the forest department about the find in the drain. Forest officials asked the NGO to take custody of the eggs for artificial incubation.
All 10 eggs were placed in a plastic container which had a bed of soil and powdered coconut husk. "This mixture has anti-bacterial and anti-fungal properties," said Chinmay Joshi, zoologist who kept a close watch on the eggs.
To check if the eggs had life in them, the 'candling' process was used. "A flashlight of high-intensity luminosity was used to check this. If the eggs are fertile, they glow," Joshi said, adding that five of them had life within.
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The temperature within the plastic contained had to be maintained between 27 degrees Celsius and 29 degrees Celsius while the humidity level had to be kept between 70% and 85%, Joshi said, adding that he would examine the eggs in the container every two or three days to ensure that all was well with the temperature and humidity.
The spot in Mulund where the eggs had been found is located on the eastern fringe of Sanjay Gandhi National Park, Borivli. Typically, the mother lizard, going by natural instinct, leaves the eggs at a place which she perceives is most conducive for the eggs to hatch. The baby lizards wriggled to life some 114 days after the eggs had been placed in the environment, the closest it could come to what nature would have provided.
The eggs hatched one by one, the last of the five on May 21. Five monitor lizard babies were found crawling inside the plastic container. All five were released into the wild, where they belong.