Lutra perspicillata: Smooth Coated Otter confirmed within the Papikonda National Park, Andhra Pradesh.

The Smooth Coated Otter, Lutra perspicillata, is one of three species of Otter found in India, along with the Asian  Small-clawed  Otter, Aonyx cinereus, and the Eurasian Otter, Lutra lutra. It is found in Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Punjab, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, and West Bengal states, but has suffered from a declining population due to habitat loss, poaching, pollution, and the eutrophication of waterways. The species is classified as Vulnerable under the terms of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature's Red List of Threatened Species.

In Andhra Pradesh, Smooth Coated Otters are known from the East Godavari, West Godavari,  and Visakhapatnam districts, as well as the Krishna Wildlife Sanctuary, all on the state's northeastern coastal plain. There have also been unconfirmed reports of the species in the Papikonda National Park in the Papi Hills, inland of that coastal plain, although this has not, to date, been confirmed.

In a paper published in the Journal of Threatened Taxa on 26 September 2025, Arun Kumar Gorati, Ritesh Vishwakarma, Anukul Nath, and Parag Nigam of the Wildlife Institute of India, detail the first confirmed sighting of a Smooth Coated Otter in the Papikonda National Park, backed up with photographic evidence.

The Otter was spotted resting on a sandbank exposed by low summer water levels on the Godavari River, about 5 km above the Polavaram Dam Project, slightly before 6.00 pm local time on 12 June 2024. It remained on the bank for about a minute, before entering the water and not being seen again.

A Smooth Coated Otter, Lutra perspicillata, on a sandbank on the Godavari River in the Papikonda National Park on 12 June 2024. Gorati et al. (2025).

As well as being of value in themselves, Otters are an important environmental indicator, demonstrating that the river has a healthy year-round Fish population, capable of supporting piscivorous predators.

However, this ecosystem is currently threatened by the development of the  Polavaram Dam Project. First conceived in the 1940s, work began on the project in the 1980s, with the aim of creating an irrigation system which will provide 2900 km² of farmland and 2 850 000 people with a reliable water supply, and produce hydroelectric power system capable of providing electricity to the entire State of Andhra Pradesh. However, when completed the dam should create a lake covering 631 km² of land, including much of the Papikonda National Park and the traditional lands of the Kondareddy people (considered to be a Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Group), who have been fighting to gain compensation for the planned losses. The project halted in 2019, due to a lack of funds and a flood which damaged a diaphragm wall, but work resumed in 2024, and the project is currently on course for completion in 2027. It already holds the record for the most concrete used for a single project in Human history.

The Polavaram Dam Project under construction. Hindustan Times.

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