Crocodile spotted behind NMMC headquarters rescued after 2-day-long operation

A crocodile that was spotted behind the Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation (NMMC) headquarters in Belapur last week was rescued after two-day long joint operation conducted by the forest officials, Wildlife Welfare Association (WWA) - a non-governmental organization, and civic body in the early hours of Tuesday. The forest officials said that it’s a 6.43 feet female crocodile weighing 35.4 kg.

Last week, a video of the crocodile went viral after it was spotted by a few fishermen in the marshy land behind the NMMC headquarters. It created a panic as that area is frequented by a lot of fishermen and other people.

The crocodile was rescued after two-day-long operation.(Sourced)

“We had learnt about the crocodile from a few local residents and accordingly blocked that area with plastic nets so that it could not escape. After searching for it for two days we finally rescued it around 12.10 am on Tuesday. The age of crocodile is around 5 years,” told Narendra Muthe, range forest officer, Thane.

Muthe added that the crocodile was spotted by some people in that area last year too. However, it did not appear after that and hence they could not rescue it back then. He said that they will first take a health certificate from the Borivali national park.

“The experts will examine and find out if the crocodile is healthy or if it has any hazardous material in its stomach. After that it will be released in a green zone,” he further said.

“The cage we used in the operation had a WiFi camera and it was being monitored by our volunteers stationed nearby. We handed it over to the forest officials soon after we captured it,” said Aditya Patil, president of WWA said.