On the banks of River Krishna in Belagavi’s Athani taluk is the Savadidarga village. Late on Thursday night, a crocodile, entered the home of a resident in the village, scaring people in the locality.
The crocodile entered the home of a man named Mariappa Mayappa at around 9.30 pm.
“There is a shed outside my house where we keep buffaloes and goats. The crocodile walked in and we did not notice until the buffalos began grunting. I went out to see what happened and saw the crocodile. It looked like the crocodile wanted to attack the buffaloes and goats,” Mariyappa said.
When the crocodile noticed that people had gathered around, it tried to escape and ended up entering Mariappa’s home.
“Although we were scared, the people of our village gathered and caught the crocodile. We first tied its mouth with a rope and then dragged it outside. We were scared to set it free so we tied it to a tree in the village, close to my house,” Mariappa said.
The villagers said that they informed the Forest Department of the incident and requested assistance.
“We called them last night itself and then this morning. The crocodile also suffered through the night. The forest officials arrived at 1 pm to take the crocodile away, they took almost 17 hours to come here. The villagers were scared and they did not want to untie the crocodile. We tried to give it some water and food but the villagers were scared that it will attack if we untie its mouth,” Mariappa added.
Mariappa alleges that the Forest Department’s lethargy has angered villagers.
“How can they be so careless. Initially, we thought that since it is Ganapati festival, they may come after a while but forest officials did not arrive until the media began asking questions. We were taking turns to watch the crocodile,” Mariappa added.
However, Athani Range Forest Officer RA Iranatti, denied the allegations by villagers and said that she had not received any calls from them.
“I did not receive any calls from the villagers. One press person called to ask why we had not gone to rescue the crocodile. That’s when I got the information first and I dispatched field officers to the spot. We brought the animal back and medical examination is being conducted to ascertain that it is healthy before we release it,” RFO Iranatti told TNM.