Kendrapara: Forest personnel Monday rescued a 12-feet long mugger crocodile from river Luna near Balarampur ghat, said Sudarshan Behera, DFO of Cuttack.
The reptile was rescued with the help of nets and expert crocodile catchers of Bhitarkanika National Park, he added. “With the principal chief conservator of forest’s permission, the reptile was sent to Nandankanan Zoological Park,” Behera said.
For the last four days, people of riverside villages were in a state of panic after they spotted the crocodile in the river. Monday morning, when a local went to catch fish in the river, he found the mugger basking in the sand bed and sounded an alert. Locals informed it to Kendrapara forest range personnel.
According to Himanshu Sekhar Muduli, Kendrapara forest ranger, about seven members of Kanika range led by Jasobanta Behera, the caretaker of albino crocodile ‘Gori’ rushed to the spot and launched a rescue operation.
The Cuttack DFO said the crocodile might have strayed from Satkosia in Mahanadi.
Woman critically hurt
Kendrapara: A 47-year-old woman, Gitarani Das, wife of Moti Das, of Kharanashi, in Mahakalapara block sustained critical injuries after a salt water crocodile attacked her Monday.
The incident occurred when the woman had been to catch fish in Kharanashi river, according to sources. The injured was rushed to the Ramnagar community health centre and subsequently shifted to the district headquarters hospital as her condition worsened. PNN
