Babiya, a crocodile that lived in the Sri Anantha Padmanabha Swamy temple’s pond in a small village called Ananthapura in Kerala’s Kasaragod district, died on Sunday, October 9. Babiya had lived in the temple pond for around 75 years and became famous as many claimed she was a ‘vegetarian’ crocodile. Following her death, people paid floral tributes to her. Visuals show Babiya in a closed casket, with garlands of flowers wrapped around her head.
“Most of the time she appears when we call her name. In the last few days, she did not surface when we called out for her with her daily feed. The death happened yesterday (October 9), the reason is unknown,” a temple official told TNM. Though there have been rumours before too about Babiya’s death, they had turned out to be fake.
The temple is known as the moolasthanam, the original source, of the Sri Padmanabha Swamy Temple in Thiruvananthapuram and residents believe that Babiya is a messenger of Lord Padmanabha.
When TNM visited the temple earlier, officials there told us that Babiya is fed the temple’s prasadam twice a day. Chandra Prakash, a temple staff member, used to feed Babiya in the morning and then in the afternoon. He said that he fed her 1 kg rice every day and would sometimes place rice balls right in her mouth. “She is not fed meat; she doesn’t even attack the fishes in the lake,” Chandra Prakash had said.
Temple priests said that over the years they take a dip in the lake without fearing an attack from Babiya. The crocodile used to mostly live in a cave which is also considered divine, according to the temple legend. The temple’s legend is that Lord Vishnu appeared as a boy in front of a sage named Divakara Muni Vilwamangalam Swamy and eventually the boy disappeared into the cave.
TNM had also spoken to Anirban Chaudhuri, a crocodile expert, who had said that crocodiles are intelligent animals and true survivors.
“Given a choice, a crocodile would always go for its natural diet, but it is also important to understand that they are great survivors and are known to be hardy animals. Therefore, it is likely that the crocodile in the temple pond is primarily feeding on the fishes there and consuming rice as part of a conditioned behavior. The rice balls fed to it twice a day will supplement its meal,” he said.