Crocodile creates a splash at Katraj

Pune, November 17 After a crocodile was spotted on the banks of Katraj lake, located behind the Rajiv Gandhi Zoological Park by some visitors on Saturday, zoo employees on Monday carried out a "casual search" for the reptile. The Maharashtra Tourism Development Corporation (MTDC), which runs the boating facility at the lake, preferred not to take any chances and kept the boating service on hold for a day. Interestingly, despite all this, there were no signs of a crocodile till evening.

Sandeep Atpalkar, along with his friend Yogesh Kanole and their families, had gone to enjoy a boat ride in the lake on Saturday, when they were left gasping for breath, after they caught a glimpse of a four-feet-long crocodile basking in the sunlight. It dived into the lake-water before them. The visitors who panicked after the chance meeting with the reptile, alerted the MTDC and also showed them snaps of the crocodile captured on their digital camera.

After this, with a binocular in hand, a few zoo employees started a search to locate the amphibian. However, as they later said, due to the cloudy weather conditions, the crocodile supposedly did not come out for basking in the sun.

PMC garden superintendent Yashwant Khaire said, “We have launched a search operation from the morning, but could not find the crocodile due to the absence of sunlight throughout the day.”

Even though, everybody wanted to know where the crocodile came from, there was some speculation that it was one of the crocodiles that had escaped from the cages kept in the zoo.

But the zoo authorities said that there were three crocodiles in the Snake Park, while three are kept in the animal orphanage. Neelimkumar Khaire, director of the orphanage and Kazvin Umrigar, director of the zoo told media persons that there was no way of zoo crocodiles getting outside the cages, as they had been well guarded.

“We launched a search operation in the morning. We put on the job about 10 employees working at the zoo, who searched for the reptile by boats and also strolling along the banks of the lake. We are also trying to tempt the animal through bait,” Khaire said.

He added, “The crocodile is reportedly 3.5 ft long, and if it is so, it does not pose any immediate danger to people, as it is crocodiles which measure over 8 feet could be lethal.”

Due to all these developments, MTDC could not operate its boating service. S B Phadtare, its manager, said, “Due to the search operation, we have preferred to keep our service shut, as it might lead to some problems. However, none of the fishermen, who come to the lake for fishing, or even our staff, have ever reported to have seen a crocodile in the past."