CHENNAI: In a swift early morning rescue operation, a 7-foot fully grown male mugger crocodile was successfully rescued from Nedungundram village near Vandalur.
The rescue was conducted by a team from Chennai Wildlife Division, which received a distress call from villagers at 3.30 am. This is the third such rescue in the last six months from the same locality. In September, a sub-adult was rescued and in November, a newly born crocodile was caught. All three are currently housed in Guindy National Park.
For a long time, there was suspicion that Nedungundram lake had a resident population of crocodiles, which were breeding. Now, the fears of local people have come true. P Shanmugam, a local resident, says it's only in recent years that sightings of crocodiles have increased. In 2019, a five-foot marsh crocodile was captured from Nedungundram.
However, the largest crocodile captured so far is the one found on Wednesday morning. Chennai wildlife warden E Prasanth told The New Indian Express that the animal was very active. "Since the rescue was conducted in the wee hours, there was no public disturbance. It took two hours for the team to secure the animal and bring it to Guindy National Park."
The official said that prima facie it looks like there is a thriving population of mugger crocodiles in Nedungundram lake. "We can't say exactly what the source is. There could be multiple possibilities."
Mugger crocodiles are medium-sized broad snouted animals which inhabit freshwater habitats like marshes, lakes, rivers and ponds. They are powerful swimmers, but also walk on land in search of suitable water bodies during the hot season.
In the 1980s, Madras Crocodile Bank Trust (MCBT) used to carry out a mugger crocodile breeding programme and re-wilded some of the population. But, in 1994, Tamil Nadu forest department suspended the re-wilding programme due to opposition from local residents and habitat shrinkage. Only recently, hundreds of mugger crocodiles that were in excess in MCBT were relocated to the Greens Zoological Rescue and Rehabilitation Centre in Gujarat.