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Crocodile rescued in Kurukshetra village
Almost 6ft long, the female crocodile had been spotted at several instances by locals in the past couple of days
A crocodile was rescued from a pond near Samaspur village of Kurukshetra district on Sunday.
Almost 6ft long, the female crocodile had been spotted at several instances by locals in the past couple of days. The reptile was rescued by volunteers led by a diver, Parghat Singh, on Sunday morning.
In the videos of the rescue operation which have been widely circulated on social media platforms, the diver, along with two others, could be seen rescuing the crocodile from a pond with the help of a rope. It was taken to Crocodile Breeding Centre at Bhor Saidan village near Pehowa town in a private vehicle. The facility houses around 50 crocodiles.
“We had launched a search operation soon after the crocodile was spotted about a week ago and today, we managed to rescue it,” said Parghat Singh, who claimed to have rescued 13 crocodiles so far.
Kurukshetra wildlife inspector Rajiv Garg said they seek support from private organisations and volunteers for such rescue operations keeping in view their expertise. “They might have taken the crocodile in a private vehicle as the department does not have its own means of transport for this purpose,” he added.
Garg also claimed that Parghat might have reached before they got the information about the crocodile, but maintained that officials from the department were present during the rescue operation to assist the team.
Rampal Singh, an official from the wildlife department, denied that the reptile was from the well-protected centre as Samaspur village is around 15km away from the breeding centre.
He, however, said that Saraswati drain that flows near the breeding centre has become a habitat for the displaced reptiles as following a flood in the area several years ago, reptiles had been rescued from the drain at multiple instances.
The crocodile was first spotted on July 6. Samaspur residents have meanwhile claimed to have spotted at least two more crocodiles in the village.
