Crocodile Appears on Banks of Hyderabad's Musi Rver

Crocodile Appears on Banks of Hyderabad's Musi Rver

A mugger crocodile that made its appearance on the banks of the Musi river in the Old City on Thursday sent forest department officials rushing to the flooded river to capture the reptile. As news of a crocodile being seen spread, crowds gathered on the roadside to catch a glimpse of it.

The crocodile, which made a brief appearance on the grassy bank of the river, disappeared soon thereafter and was not spotted again. The anti-poaching team tried to locate it but it is dangerous to enter the water when a crocodile is present. We will have to wait for it to come to the land to capture it,” A. Shankaran, officer on special duty, forest department, said.

The crocodile was first spotted by residents in Bahadurpura, who informed the Kulsumpura police, who in turn alerted the forest department. Kulsumpura inspector P. Shankar said that police officials were immediately deployed to the location where the crocodile was reported from, to control the crowd that had gathered there.

This is not the first time that a mugger has been seen in the Musi. There have been instances in the past when a few that were spotted, caught and taken to zoo.

“The ones we caught and brought to the zoo were about two or three feet long,” Dr M. Navin Kumar, former chief veterinary officer and deputy director of the zoo, told Deccan Chronicle.

From the pictures of the crocodile, it appears that it might be about three or
four feet long and could be about five years of age. “There are crocodiles in the Musi and they are also breeding, despite the water quality in the river,” he said.