Crocodiles in Brahmini river;Panic grips coastal Orissa villages

Kendrapada, Apr 5 (UNI) Panic gripped several riverside villages in this coastal Orissa district after five salt water crocodiles were spotted in the Brahmini river by the villagers.

The villagers of Atala, Sahupada, Manikapatana, Narendrapur, Manpur, Balijodi, Dasipur and Tunga Keshab were frightened as one Keshab Behera, a resident of Atala village under Aul police limit, was attacked by a salt water crocodile on Tuesday, while he was giving the cattle a bath in the river.

Behera sustained critical multiple injuries as one estuarine crocodile bit his leg and later dragged him to the midde of the river. But as fortune favoured, the youth managed to save his life from the jaws of the crocodile after putting a brave fight with the reptile.

With multiple injuries on his legs, head and face, he was immediately rushed to the Aul Primary Health Centre(PHC), where he was undergoing treatment of his injuries, inflicted by the crocodile.

Following the incident, the villagers had stopped taking bath in the ghats of the Brahmani river and urged the Divisional Forest Officer of Rajnagar to drive back the salt water crocodiles to their habitat inside the Bhitarkanika creeks.

Keshab's family members had also brought the matter before the DFO, requesting him to provide financial assistance for treatment of the crocodile victim.

The villagers alleged that though they had brought the matter before the notice of the DFO, the Forest department had not taken any step to capture the estuarine crocodile from the river and release them in the wild of Bhitarkanika National park.

Wildlife officials said the 'reptile-animal' conflict was the outcome of the frequent human intrusion into the crocodile habitat for illegal fishing, poaching, collection of wood, honey and nalia grass from the rivers and creeks.

In most of the cases, it was the male crocodiles, which attacked the human being. As per the official reports, at least ten people were killed and 22 critically injured by the crocodiles since 1999 in the region. In all these cases crocodiles of more than 16-ft-long were found to be killing the people.

Besides, the human being, a total of 48 live stocks had fallen prey by the jaws of crocodiles for the past five and-a-half years.

High tide usually brought the crocodiles into the river water within striking distance of the animals grazing on the river bank.

UNI