The Hindu : Front Page : Now, it's crocodile after floods

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Wednesday, Nov 16, 2005

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Now, it's crocodile after floods

S. Ganesan

CROC SEARCH: Workers clearing bushes at Muthu Nagar in Lalgudi on Tuesday. — Photo: M. Moorthy

TIRUCHI: After floods, it is time for hunting stray crocodiles along the banks of water courses in Tiruchi district. The Forest Department got the season's first call on Monday night after a reptile was sighted off a swamp at a colony off Lalgudi.

With the locals claiming to have sighted as many as three crocodiles, Forest officials and sanitary workers of the Lalgudi special panchayat launched a hunt to track down the reptiles on Tuesday morning.

The scare has forced residents of Muthu Nagar, Shanthi Nagar and Thiru Nagar, tread with caution on the muddy lanes of their colonies. These colonies were inundated after the nearby Kuvalaiyar, a drainage channel from where the crocodile is believed to have strayed, overflowed during the recent floods.

Several residents claimed to have sighted the reptile near a large swamp covered by thorny bushes in Muthu Nagar. The president of the Lalgudi special panchayat, L. Arockiasamy, said a few locals had reported sighting a full-grown crocodile and two young ones. But Forest officials were inclined to believe that there probably was only one crocodile and that too a young one as most of the residents had sighted only a single reptile though at different parts of the locality.

The District Forest Officer, K.V. Giridhar, who supervised the operation on Tuesday morning, decided to summon a team of fishermen from Thiruvanaikovil who caught two crocodiles at the Rockfort Teppakulam some months back.

Meanwhile, efforts are on to clear the thorny bushes. The idea is to restrict the movement of the reptile and make it easier for the fishermen to trap.

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