This was a day of huge, grey sheets of rainclouds that had wrapped Sundarban. In a desolate canal with the dripping woods nearby, our eyes found this pair. The skies were crying and the forest, just a breath away, was bathed in an ethereal shade of green which contrasted the alluring greyness above.
Monitor lizards become sexually mature at around 3 years of age. They have multiple partners, that is, they engage in polygynandry, with both males and females mating with a multiple number of partners. Their mating season is during the rains, right through the months of June to September, ( although males start to be combative in summer, from around April and May) when the rain clouds move into the great forest blocks.
The gestation period varies from 4 to 8 months with an incubation period ranging from five to eight months. The average clutch size is about 20, although only about 40 to 80 per cent of eggs survive from a clutch.
Females often choose patches in mudflats, or at a distance from the embankments to dig their nests. They expertly use their snouts to fill up the nests and smoothen the mud and soil.  As a diversionary tactic for predators, they sometimes dig false nests nearby.
Young monitor lizards are quite a handful and move about independently since birth. Their early years are often arboreal, although later on, their habits become more terrestrial.
 
Author : Uddalak Das