Kendrapara, April. 19 (PTI) Gori, the country's only captive white estuarine crocodile, is sick.

Gori's health, which has remained indifferent over the last few years, has deteriorated in the past one week, forest officials said.

The crocodile has been kept in a pen at Dangamal in the Bhitarkanika national park where it has chosen to live alone.

A vet from Chandbali in neighbouring Bhadrak district, who has been monitoring the croc's health periodically, said that there was no palpable threat to its life.

He said it had skipped food on a few occasions in the past as well. But the ageing process has been catching up with it.

For the last one week, the reptile has mostly remained motionless and was not sighted basking in the sun on the edge of the pool where it lives. It also showed a distinct disinterest towards food.

Park personnel feed Gori with fish and crabs thrice a day.

"It is under constant observation," he said.

Park officials, however, declined to elaborate on the health of the crocodile which had attracted attention because of its typical behavioural instinct.

Living in isolation since its birth in 1975, the croc had shunned attempts by the park officials to pair it with a male.

When a large male was released into its pen, ostensibly for mating, Gori had violently attacked it resulting in injury to its left eye.

There was also a proposal to release the croc in the wild on the ground that it might help her regain her health in natural environs. But the plan was shelved subsequently.

Gori, which got its name from the numerous whitish patches on its body, was hatched and bred by the forest authorities as part of a crocodile conservation plan taken up in the early 1970s.

A large number of visitors to the park make it a point to come to see Gori as part of their itinerary into the verdant sanctuary on the edge of the sea.

The rivers and numerous creeks in the park are teeming with estuarine crocodiles. On the sea coast are located the Gahirmatha beach made famous by the visit of Olive Ridley sea turtles while the forest attracts large number of migratory birds during winter.