Bharuch, 9 June, 2014

Crocodile in Narmada river in Bharuch district has attacked one more person today. A child attacked by crocodile at Shuklatirth today has been taken to hospital for treatment.

People go closer to Narmada river and even take bath, in spite of district collector’s recent notification banning bath in river for two months period.

The administration has put signboards at several places on river bank between Kevadia and Maktampur to alert people against taking bath in river. Three teams of forest department are holding survey of estimated number of crocodiles in river Narmada between Keavadia and Maktampur by seeking details of sighting of crocodiles from villagers, boatmen and locals settled at river bank.

Crocodile is protected animal and therefore it can’t be killed. When forest department traps some crocodile, they leave it in water at some distance away in same river.

As per one estimate there are more than 100 crocodiles near Bharuch in river Narmada due to excellent availability of sweet water fishes. Crocodiles lay eggs in the period of April/May, and they behave more aggressively during these months. One crocodile sometimes lay 300 eggs at once.

The Sardar Sarovar Narmada dam was overflowing for 40 days during last monsoon. It is believed that crocodiles living in upstream areas could have migrated to downstream areas of Bharuch district during that period. During last monsoon, water of Dhandhar and Narmada river mixed together which made situation even worse. In last one year around 15 crocodiles are rescued and released in Sardar Sarovar.