It is native to freshwater habitats from southern Iran to the Indian subcontinent, where it inhabits marshes, lakes, rivers and artificial ponds.

It rarely reaches a body length of 5 m (16 ft 5 in) and is a powerful swimmer, but also walks on land in search of suitable waterbodies during the hot season.

Both young and adult mugger crocodiles dig burrows to which they retreat when the ambient temperature drops below 5 °C (41 °F) or exceeds 38 °C (100 °F).

The mugger crocodile evolved at least 4.19 million years ago and has been a symbol for the fructifying and destructive powers of the rivers since the Vedic period.

Outside protected areas, it is threatened by conversion of natural habitats, gets entangled in fishing nets and is killed in human–wildlife conflict situations and in traffic accidents.

Crocodilus palustris was the scientific name proposed by René Lesson in 1831 who described the type specimen from the Gangetic plains.

The freshwater crocodile (C. johnstoni) is thought to have been the first species that genetically diverged from the common ancestor of the genus about 12.45 to 7.17 million years ago.

[6] A paleogenomics analysis indicated that Crocodylus likely originated in Africa and radiated towards Southeast Asia and the Americas, diverging from its closest recent relative, the extinct Voay of Madagascar, around 25 million years ago near the Oligocene/Miocene boundary.

[11][12] In Andhra Pradesh’s Prakasam district, a 30.6 cm (12.0 in) long fossilized skull of a mugger crocodile was found in a volcanic ash bed that probably dates to the late Pleistocene.

[13] Crocodylus palaeindicus from late Pliocene sediments in the Sivalik Hills is thought to be an ancestor of the mugger crocodile.

[23] The mugger crocodile occurs in southern Iran, Pakistan, Nepal, India and Sri Lanka up to an elevation of 420 m (1,380 ft).

Following several tropical cyclones in 2007 and 2010, much of the habitat of the mugger crocodiles has been restored as formerly dry lakes and hamuns were flooded again.

[50] In Bangladesh, it was historically present in the northern parts of the Sundarbans, where four to five captive individuals survived in an artificial pond by the 1980s.

[2] The mugger crocodile is a powerful swimmer that uses its tail and hind feet to move forward, change direction and submerge.

During the hot dry season, it walks over land at night to find suitable wetlands and spends most of the day submerged in water.

[53] Burrows are between 0.6 and 6 m (2.0 and 19.7 ft) deep, with entrances above the water level and a chamber at the end that is big enough to allow the mugger to turn around.

[49] The mugger crocodile preys on fish, snakes, turtles, birds and mammals including monkeys, squirrels, rodents, otters and dogs.

[56] In Yala National Park, a mugger killed a large Indian pangolin (Manis crassicaudata) and devoured pieces over several hours.

[2] Major wetlands in Pakistan were drained in the 1990s by dams and channels to funnel natural streams and agricultural runoffs into rivers.

[74] Between 2005 and 2018, 38 mugger crocodiles were victims of traffic accidents on roads and railway tracks in Gujarat; 29 were found dead, four died during treatment, and five were returned to the wild after medical care.

[67] In Sri Lanka, it was listed in Schedule IV of the Fauna & Flora Protection Ordinance in 1946, which allowed for shooting one crocodile with a permit.

[86] A stone carving of a mugger crocodile was part of a beam of a gateway to the Bharhut Stupa built around 100 BC.

[87] The traditional biography of the Indian saint Adi Shankara includes an incident where he is grabbed by a crocodile in the Kaladi river, which releases him only after his mother reluctantly let him choose the ascetic path of a Sannyasa.

[88] The Muslim saint Pīr Mango is said to have taken care of crocodiles and created a stream to trickle out of a rock near Karachi in the 13th century.

This place was later walled around, and about 40 mugger crocodiles were kept in the reservoir called Magar Talao in the 1870s; they were fed by both Hindu and Muslim pilgrims.

In the early 20th century, young married women fed the crocodiles in Khan Jahan Ali's Tank in Jessore in the hope of being blessed with children.

[90] Vasava, Gamit and Chodhri tribes in Gujarat worship the crocodile god Mogra Dev asking for children, good crops and milk yield of their cows.

Their offerings during the installation ceremony include rice, milk, wine, heart and liver of a chicken, and a mixture of vermillion, oil and coconut fibres.

[91] Fatal attacks of mugger crocodiles on humans were documented in Gujarat and Maharashtra, but they rarely consumed the victims who died of drowning.

[81] The children’s book Adventures of a Nepali Frog features the character Mugger, the crocodile who lives by the Rapti River in Chitwan National Park.