'Vegetarian' crocodile that lived in Kerala temple pond for over 70 years dies

Kasaragod, Oct 10: A vegetarian crocodile that had been living at Sri Anantha Padmanabha Swamy Temple in Kasaragod for more than seven decades now has passed away.

A sea of people paid +tributes to the crocodile, named Babiya, when its body was placed in a mobile freezer on the premises of the Sree Ananthapadmanabha Swamy Temple at Kumbla on Monday.

It is believed that in 1945 a British soldier shot a crocodile in the temple and within days, Babiya appeared in the temple pond," according to a report by the Hindu.

"Saddened to hear that Divine Crocodile Babiya which was guarding Sri Anantapura Lake Temple in Kasaragod of Kerala is no more.!!." tweeted Girish Bharadwaj.

"Vegetarian Babiya lived in Temple lake for the last 70+ years by eating the Prasadam of Sri Ananthapadmanabha Swamy," he added.

Babiya was a friendly animal and never caused any harm to anyone. The crocodile was not keeping well for the past few days and was taken to veterinary surgeons from Mangaluru's Pilikula Biological Park, Udayakumar R Gatty, trustee of the temple told Manorama.

The crocodile did not come up for food for last two days. The authorities launched a search but could not find it. Sunday night, the crocodile was found dead in the lake."

In memory of the crocodile, the temple authorities decided to Babiya on the temple ground.