Rescue teams had set up a trap to attract the crocodile after it attacked and killed a 54-year-old woman from the Mahadevpura village in Waghodia Taluka.
More than 36 hours since a team of rescuers and officials from the Vadodara Forest Department started an operation to capture a crocodile from the Dev River in the Mahadevpura village in Waghodia taluka of Vadodara District, the 13-foot-long assailant finally walked towards the bait on Sunday. Morning. Rescuers had set up a trap to lure the crocodile after it attacked and killed a 54-year-old woman from the Mahadevpura village in Waghodia Taluka, who was washing clothes along the river on Friday.
In early May, the same Crocodile had similarly dragged another woman near Goraj, about a kilometer away.
Hemant Vadhana and her team of crocodile hunters joined the forest department team led by Kashyap Patel on Friday afternoon when the woman’s body was pulled out of the river after much struggle with the assailant. The crocodile had dragged the woman by the leg and also chewed a significant part of her thigh during the hour-long fight with the villagers, who were trying to rescue the woman. This was the third crocodile attack on humans this year and the second fatal one. In early May, the same Crocodile had similarly dragged another woman near Goraj, about a kilometer away.
Vadhwana, who has rescued about 10 crocodiles from various parts of Vadodara since the start of the monsoon this year, said: “It took us over 36 hours to get him out of the water.” We had baited and I was trying to lure him. When he came out, I put the loop around his neck and took it out. Rescuers typically throw a cloth over the crocodile to block their vision and tame the aggression before nailing it to the ground. The crocodile has now been turned over to the Vadodara Forest Department.
The crocodile had dragged the woman by the leg and also chewed a significant part of her thigh.
According to Vadhwana, the crocodile had been residing within the river for more than seven years and has fatally attacked seven people, mostly women washing clothes on the riverbank, during this time. Authorities also say the crocodile may have become a man-eater and been attacked by humans due to the fact that biomedical waste is often found in a part of the river, near a charity hospital for cancer patients, about a kilometer away from Mahadevpura.
The Dev River in Waghodia is known for alligator attacks during the monsoon.
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