Aradi: Seventy years have passed, but the problem of commuting has remained the same for thousands of people in several riparian villages under Chandbali block in Bhadrak. Crossing the Baitarani has always been fraught with danger from crocodiles with many being attacked by the reptiles in the past.
The only means of communication are country and motorised boats. Worst sufferers are several villages in Olaga panchayat.
Due to the crocodiles, people fear to go to the river for bathing. “As no alternative is available in the village, we are forced to take bath with extreme caution in the river,” a villager lamented.
Interestingly, locals have been relying on a superstitious belief to ward off crocodile attacks.
At bathing ghats, they tie boats to poles. “Boats and crocodiles have a strange relation. They can’t come to each other, like a man and his younger brothers’ wives are barred from seeing each other. (It has been a traditional taboo in Odia family). Boats at the bathing ghats have driven away our fears,” a local pointed out.
However, many conscious citizens observed that this measure is no guard against crocodile attacks. Forest officials have put up signboards warning against possible crock attack at some places on the river bank.
They have advised the villagers against entering the bathing ghats. They made it clear that the mere presence of boats on bathing ghats is not a deterrent. Despite tying boats, a woman of Bodal was attacked by a crocodile a few years ago. She is the wife of Bholanath Nayak and has lost a leg.
Forest official Pradip Kumar Nayaka said that the department is conducting awareness programmes and bathing in this river has been prohibited.
Villagers said that there is no alternative water source for bathing. A water project had been proposed in Bodal in 2012, but there has been no progress on it. Besides, the panchayat does not have adequate number of tube wells for drinking water.
PNN
