The Hindu : Front Page : Crocodile strays into house at Peerkankaranai

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Dec 12, 2006
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Crocodile strays into house at Peerkankaranai

Staff Reporter

Wildlife personnel traps and releases it into Vandalur Zoological Park

— Photo: A.Muralitharan

UNUSUAL VISITOR: The crocodile that strayed into a house near Tambaram seen after it was released into the Vandalur Zoo.

TAMBARAM/CHENNAI: Residents of a house in the southern suburb Peerkankaranai near Tambaram had the shock of their life when a young crocodile strayed into their home early on Monday.

The noise made by the 4-foot long reptile woke them up. It was later caught by Wildlife personnel and released into Vandalur Zoological Park.

"... We were shocked by its sight," said Mumtaj. Her husband Abdul Salam, a Transport department employee residing on Professor Street in Peerkankaranai, said he had opened the door at 2.15 a.m. Barely had he taken a few steps, when he was confronted by the reptile.

They called the police control room, which alerted the Peerkankaranai police station.

Even as a police team arrived, neighbours crowded around Mr. Salam's house. The crocodile had, by then, entered the bathroom.

Police personnel prevented curious onlookers from getting too close to the animal. Forest department personnel, alerted by the police, arrived around 5 a.m.

Residents of Peerkankaranai said this was not their first close encounter with the reptile.

P.L.Ananthasamy, Chief Conservator of Forests and Zoo Director, said it was a wild crocodile.

There were quite a few water bodies in and around Vandalur and it could have strayed from one of them. None of the crocodiles housed in the Park had strayed into the residential area and there was no need to panic.

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