ALAPPUZHA: Villagers residing along the banks of Vembanadu Lake in the district's rural areas, who depend on the backwaters to earn a living, have a new 'danger' to reckon with -- Otters ('neer nai'), the fish-eating mammals.
These amphibians are aplenty in Veliyambra area at Thanneermukkom, for example, and the villagers are wary of venturing into the backwaters, whether for fishing or taking bath.
Otters, which have long, slim bodies and relatively short limbs, with webbed paws, are now common in the lake that is already plagued by hyacinth (African payal), making it doubly difficult for the local people.
Says Chandrababu, a fisherman at Veliyambra, "I was operating my Chinese net the other day when a group of otters ('kazhunna') suddenly appeared before me. I was terrified but all of them swam away the moment I reached for a stick." Natarajan, another fisherman, he had a similar experience while catching fishes using his country craft but, sensing danger, "I rowed away from the group of otters fast enough before they could attack me." But women and children are apparently not so lucky.
They have stopped bathing in the backwaters, more so after the experience of one Girija.
"I was taking bath along with my friend last Monday. Then unexpectedly an otter surfaced in front of me. I was scared as I had never seen the creature ever before in my life.
Though I rushed out of the water, it followed me but my friend grabbed a rock and scared it away," says Girija.
For all the otter 'threat', nobody has been injured till day by the rather unsightly critters.