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Journalism of Courage
With the increasing interference of humans in unexplored forests and hills, many wild animals and birds have been found intruding residential areas. While leopards and snakes are a common sight, how often do you see a crocodile roaming around in a city? Recently, a 4.4-ft crocodile was found in one of the drains at a construction site in Mulund, Mumbai.
The Resqink Association for Wildlife Welfare (RAWW) team rescued the reptile and posted a detailed incident on Facebook. Although it’s a point of debate as to the boundaries of humans and wild creatures, such incidents put the spotlight on how the public safety as well as the safety of the poor animal trapped in human settlements is endangered.
While talking to IndianExpress.com, Pawan Sharma, the founder of Resqink Association for Wildlife Welfare said, “Majority of times it happens when lakes overflow during the rainy season that time many turtles, fishes, crocs are seen overflowing and at times found in the city drains in the suburbs which are in the periphery of the national park.”
4.4 feet Male Croc stuck in drain at Construction site in Mulund , Rescued!
Late afternoon today,
A distress call was reported to our helpline from a residential society in Mulund regarding sightings of a crocodile in a drain at a construction site next to the society.
While responding to the call members of RAWW Rescue team were assigned to check the ground situation.
Soon after reaching the spot our team located the crocodile in a drain and checked if there was any route directly connecting to its natural habitat which was not found.
The Mumbai Range of Thane Forest Department was alerted and preparations for initiating a rescue operation started.
Our team did the survey of the area and checked all possible exit points for the reptile to escape which entered into human zones, which were soon evaluated and secured.
The reptile was in a 5 feet pit connecting to a drain and there were possibilities of reptile ending up near the labour camp of the construction site or the work area which had potentials of leading into a Human Wildlife Conflict situation.
A 15 member team of wildlife rescuers from RAWW and the Mumbai Range of Forest Department began the rescue operation which lasted for 7 hours after which the crocodile was safely captured.
Around 6 PM in the evening the water pumps and halogen lights were arranged to bring down the water level and good visiblity. At the same time a team was clearing the chocked drain line due to which the water flow was slow which lead to the formation of a pit.
After two hours the water level decreased to an extent when the teams started setting nets in the pit.
Around 8:45PM the crocodile was spotted which was hiding in a hollow space between the junctions of the drains in the pit.
Around 9:25PM all the nets were properly set in the pit and the teams waited for an hour to allow the crocodile to move in the water and enter in the nets.
Around 10:30 PM the first effort was called off as the crocodile did not moved into the nets and soon preparations for the next started which was initiated 30 minutes later.
Failing two more attempts when the teams changed the positions of the nets the crocodile entered the nets and was then safely removed out of the pit around 1:00 AM.
It was then allowed to stabilize in the custody of the Forest Department overnight.
It was headed for a medical examination to our Honorary Wildlife Veterinarian Dr. Rina Dev who identified it as a Male Marsh Crocodile, Weight 8.8 kgs, Age around 5 to 6 years approx.
It was declared fit by Dr. Rina Dev after which its scutes were clipped for identification in future followed by all necessary paper work the crocodile was released back to its natural habitat which shall remain disclosed for the protection of the reptile.
Talking about the rescue operation, Sharma said, “It was done in a systematic, scientific and strategic manner ensuring the safety of people, animal, rescue team at equal priority. Every rescue depends on situation and circumstances there which are always different and thus require different plans.”
