On Friday, a man from Dandeli in Karnataka was attacked by a crocodile at Kali river. According to reports, witnesses saw the 43-year-old Ayappaswamy devotee enter the river for a bath when he was pulled into the water by a crocodile.

The man has been identified as Nagesh Eshwar Ballari, a native of Nirmal Nagar in Dandeli.

Upon seeing that the man had been dragged into the river by a crocodile, the witnesses raised an alarm. Forest Department officials, who had been alerted and were conducting a search to find the man, eventually located him lying on the river bank some distance away from the spot where he had entered the river. The man had sustained several injuries and was in a state of physiological shock.

He was immediately rushed to a hospital nearby and then shifted to a private hospital in Dharwad, once he was stabilised.  

Reports stated that Nagesh, a daily wage labourer, had gone to the river with his wife and son. Following the incident, a water sports adventure team aided in searching for him. “If he was attacked by a crocodile, he would have suffered huge wounds and chance of survival would be very less. He might have drowned in the flow of the river and managed to swim till he reached the isle,” stated Forest Department officials to TNIE.

In an incident in May, a 52-year-old man was reportedly attacked and mauled to death by a crocodile while he was swimming in the Cauvery river in Muthathi locality, which falls under Mandya district’s Malavalli taluk. The victim was identified as Venkatesh, a resident of Bengaluru’s Hesaraghatta.