Gujarat floods | Officials played with crocodiles, now Vadodara residents pay the price

When Gujarat officials relocated crocodiles near human settlements a long ago, environmentalists denounced it. Now people in Vadodara are in panic as the reptiles have invaded entire neighbourhoods after heavy floods.

Gujarat has been flooded for about a week due to incessant rainfall. Several rivers are overflowing. But for people in Vadodara, the flood is the least of their problems.

Hundreds of crocodiles have come out of the Vishwamitra river that runs through 17 km in the city.

Reptiles throng city

The river, home to around 300 crocodiles since 2019, has been flowing above the danger mark since August 27, causing the reptiles to throng the city for the past two days.

People are in panic as crocodiles have been spotted in residential areas as well as the premises of the MS University and two private hospitals.

As floodwaters begin to recede in the city, forest department officials and volunteers have been on their toes attending to calls to rescue crocodiles seen at various locations.

Rescuing crocodiles

“We do not know how many could have escaped from the river. Volunteers have rescued 25 crocodiles ranging from 8 to 14 feet from different areas. Most have been released back into the Vishwamitra as we do not have space in our rescue centre,” Karansinh Rajput, the Vadodara Range Forest Officer (RFO), told The Federal.

He said there are eight crocodiles at the rescue centre. “They are bigger in size so we are waiting for water to recede to put them back in the river,” Rajput said.

“Today, we rescued a 14-foot crocodile from a residence near Kamnath Mahadev temple, one from Ratri Bazar area and another 11-foot crocodile from the Zoology Department of the MS University,” he added.

The crocodiles were brought to the Vishwamitra river between 2019 and 2021 from the upper Narmada river surrounding the Statue of Unity in Kevadiya in Narmada district.

The decision to shift around 500 crocodiles into two ponds around the Statue of Unity came after the Gujarat government decided to start boating and sea plane facilities to lure tourists to Kevadiya.

Boat rides, sea plane

“Initially, 194 crocodiles had been relocated from Narmada near the Statue of Unity to ensure the safety of tourists who go for boat rides. Later more crocodiles were shifted to ensure the safe landing of the sea plane that were to ply between Sabarmati river in Ahmedabad and Narmada river in Kevadiya. The sea plane services never kicked off but the crocodiles were not taken back to their natural habitat here,” said an official of the Sardar Sarovar Narmada Nigam Ltd (SSNNL).

Following the decision of the state government, 73 rescued crocodiles were released in the Vishwamitra between 2019 and 2020. Some were transferred to the rescue centres at Godhra and Gandhinagar. Later, about 200 more reptiles were shifted by air and road to Vishwamitra in Vadodara and Sabarmati river in Gandhinagar.

Govt move opposed

“It was not possible to release all of them into the Vishwamitra, so they were distributed in other places as well. These crocodiles ended up going back closer to the human habitats from where they were once rescued and brought to the Narmada years back,” said the SSNNL official on condition of anonymity.

The environmentalists of Gujarat had opposed the move by the government stating that not only the reptiles were being moved away from their natural habitat but being released dangerously close to human settlements.

“The transfer of crocodiles in such large numbers to facilitate boating and seaplane services was against the principles of the Wildlife Protection Act,” said Rohit Prajapati, an environmentalist based in Vadodara.

Endangered species

“These reptiles, known as mugger or marsh crocodiles, are endangered species, categorised under Schedule 1 of the Wildlife Protection Act,” he said.

“Crocodiles cannot nest, grow or form a habitat in shallow rivers. Both Sabarmati and Vishwamitra are shallow rivers. Besides, both the rivers are close to human habitats and run through populated cities,” said Dr Jitendra Gavli, Director of the Community Science Centre in Vadodara.

“The crocodiles come out in winter to nest; so, they should not have been released so close to human habitat. It is a practice to capture crocodiles from human settlement areas during the monsoon and release them in deeper waters, not vice versa,” Gavli said.