Rescue operations on to relocate crocodile from Navi Mumbai pond

After two days of a video going viral about spotting a crocodile in a pond behind Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation headquarters in Belapur, forest officials and an NGO have started rescue operations to rehabilitate the reptile to a safer place

After two days of a video going viral about spotting a crocodile in a pond behind Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation headquarters in Belapur, forest officials and an NGO have started rescue operations to rehabilitate the reptile to a safer place.

Volunteers prepare a cage for a crocodile found in Belapur. (Bachchan Kumar/HT photo)

On February 17, a video of the crocodile being spotted in the pond had gone viral. On Friday, Thane range forest officials and Wildlife Welfare Association (WWA) reached the spot to conduct the rescue operations of the reptile.

Narendra Muthe, Thane Range Forest Officer, said, “We received complaints from people residing in the area and also from the disaster management cell of NMMC regarding the crocodile.. We have put up nets and also stationed volunteers at the spot. With the help of WWA, we would be rescuing the reptile and sending it to its natural habitat.”

On Friday, WWA spotted the crocodile and put up nets on the outlet of the pond so that the reptile does not go to another pond adjacent to it. On Saturday, WWA was planning to put up a cage in the pond so as to get hold of the reptile and then release it to a place which the forest department suggests.

“On Saturday afternoon, we spotted the crocodile and are looking for a location to put the cage with feed to attract the reptile. By evening, we could not locate the crocodile, hence we would return on Sunday with the cage. It will be a futile effort to keep the cage at a place where the crocodile is not there and hence we have to make sure of its presence before we place the cage,” Omkar Kolekar, from WWA said.

Aditya Patil, President of WWA, said that it is suspected that the crocodile might have been displaced from the Juinagar creek. “In the past, a crocodile was spotted at Juinagar creek. We can’t be sure if it’s the same as it is not possible to identify the reptile individually. But we suspect that the same crocodile would have got displaced from there during high tide with the heavy current of water,” Patil said.