In an image that is viral on the internet right now, it is causing frenzy because there are too many crocodiles to count.

The image, which was captured by Hritiman Mukherjee, an expert photographer, shows a single croc covered in hundreds of crocodiles.

Because of how amazing the image looks like, the image is currently included in the Wildlife Photographer of the Year (WPY) competition.

Every single crocodile in the image will need to survive into adulthood so that they could breed again and increase the population.

In the image you can see the freshwater gharial (Gavialis gangeticus) is critically endangered.

Once, there were around 20,000 freshwater gharials roaming across South Asia, but as of writing this article, there are only less than 1,000 adult gharials.

3 quarters of those 1,000 adult gharials are currently found in the concentrated Uttar Pradesh sanctuary.

Dhritiman, the photographer, shared the amazing images and said:

This male had mated with seven or eight females, and you can see that it was very much involved. Normally the gharial is quite a shy crocodile compared with the saltwater and marsh crocs. But this one was very protective and if I got too close, it would charge me. It could be very aggressive.

The huge decline in this type of crocodile is a result of huge habitat loss.

This has been driven principally by dams and barrages that hat stopped and caused a huge flaw in the flow of the rivers in Uttar Pradesh.

Not only that, but this croc also gets caught up in fishing nets too.

Dhritman says he hopes that the population of the crocs will increase in the near future with proper conservation efforts.

The winners of the 2020 Wildlife Photographer of the Year award will be announced on October 13, 2020.