Gujarat ‘crocodile attack’: Forest dept recovers body of man from Vadodara river

Last month, a 15-year-old girl near Dev Dam in Vadodara’s Waghodia was mauled to death by a crocodile when she went to the river to wash clothes.

The Gujarat forest department has recovered the body of a 30-year-old man after videos of him getting attacked by a crocodile in the Dhadhar river near Sokhdaraghu village of Padra taluka in Vadodara surfaced on Sunday.

For representational purposes only. (AP Photo)

The National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) began a search operation on Sunday evening after videos of the man being pulled into the river by the crocodile circulated on the social media. The body was recovered around 11 pm last night, a forest official said.

“The deceased has been identified as Diwan Imranbhai Allisha. The cause of the death can only be ascertained after the post mortem is done. The shoulders of the deceased were torn away by the crocodile when we recovered the body. Some people who were at the lake are of the view that the deceased may have slipped and drowned before being attacked by the crocodile,” said Ravirajsinh Rathod, deputy conservator of forests (DCF), Vadodara.

Last month, a 15-year-old girl near Dev Dam in Vadodara’s Waghodia was mauled to death by a crocodile when she went to the river to wash clothes, Rathod said.

There are around 300 crocodiles in Vishwamitri river, according to the last census carried out in 2016. The river originates from Pavagadh in Panchmahal district and flows through parts of Vadodara. Two other tributaries, including Dhadhar where the Sunday incident took place, join it before the river amalgamates with the Gulf of Khambhat.