Villagers rescue 7ft crocodile in Ghaziabad's Parpa village

GHAZIABAD: A 7-feet freshwater crocodile has been rescued from a pond in Parpa village in Dhaulana. The alligator was first spotted by villagers about 15 days ago, and the forest department had set traps, but they were unsuccessful. However, early on Friday morning, it showed up, and they managed to capture it and release it in its natural habitat downstream of the river Ganga near Brij Ghat.
“For the last 15 days since the giant crocodile was spotted in a pond in Parpa village, fear psychosis had gripped the entire village. We contacted the forest department officials who also spotted the alligator through binoculars, but it gave them a slip and dived into the pond,” said Vikas, a former Pradhan of Parpa Village.
“The forest department set up camps near the pond, and eight days ago it was again spotted, but this time too the forest department failed to lure it out of the water body, which is spread over an area of 2 bighas. So, we started to drain water out of the pond, and on Friday at around 3 AM, the crocodile was seen crawling out of the pond,” added Vikas.
Forester Arun Joshi said, “We had run out of options to lure the crocodile out, and given its massive size—it was around 7-feet—engaging it in water would have spelt disaster, so we started to drain the water out of the pond for about three days. We stepped up vigil and were scanning the entire area through searchlights, and finally, it showed up,” added Joshi.
It took the entire forest team and villagers to restrain the crocodile. Ropes were thrown at it, and once it even started doing a death roll, which crocodiles do as they try to wriggle out. “Finally, after about 45 minutes, the alligator was restrained—its massive jaws tied. It was later ferried into a vehicle after being examined by a veterinarian to Brij Ghat and was released in the river Ganga downstream towards Bijnor, from where we believe it must have come,” said Joshi.
The 66 Km Madhya Ganga canal, which was made operational a couple of years ago, starts from Bijnor. The water flow is regulated into the canal from Bijnor’s Choudhary Charan Singh Madhya Ganga Barrage.
“It looks that due to rain, water in huge quantity was released in Madhya Ganga Canal, and the crocodile, which is found in the Ganga river and its tributaries, must have found its way into the canal and had reached the pond in Parpa village, which is less than 50 m away from the canal,” said Joshi.
It is not very difficult for a crocodile to have crawled a distance of 50 m in the dead of night and entered the pond.