The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : Stray crocodile `not from wild'

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Dec 13, 2006
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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Stray crocodile `not from wild'

P. Oppili

City's outlying areas `have no habitat suitable for them'

HARDY SURVIVOR: The marsh crocodile that strayed into a house at suburban Peerkankaranai. — Photo: A. Muralitharan

CHENNAI : The marsh crocodile that strayed into a house in Peerkankaranai, near Tambaram, could not have been from the wild, says herpetologist, Romulus Whitaker.

The outlying areas of Chennai have no habitats suitable for crocodiles, though such habitats must have been there two centuries ago, even within what is now the city, he maintains.

The four-foot long crocodile entered a house of a transport department employee early on Monday frightening the residents.

It was caught by the Wildlife department officials and taken to the Vandalur zoo. The reptile is healthy and is being kept in an enclosure with other crocodiles, zoo officials said.

In the last 40 years there were no records of crocodiles straying from the wild into a human habitation, Mr Whitaker says, adding that nearly two decades ago a crocodile was sighted in the Otteri Nullah near Stanley Medical College.

However, the reptile was run over by a train when it tried to cross the railway track.

Explaining how the reptile could have strayed into a human habitation, Mr. Whitaker said a kite or a crow could have picked up a two or three-day old baby crocodile from captivity (in the zoo, which could have slipped and fallen into a water body. The baby crocodile could have gone undetected for years and come out now, he says.

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