Human encroachments are taking over the animal kingdom and the concrete jungle is thus becoming a habitat for them to share. We have seen leopards being spotted in the close vicinity of some residential complexes in the city and now crocs are residing in the drains. Recently a 4.4-foot specimen was spotted at a construction site near Mulund. The rescue mission took nearly 7-8 hours to get the 8.8 kg reptile out of the drain.

Residents in the Yogi Hills area in Mulund west spotted the crocodile and called the Resqink Association for Wildlife Welfare (RAWW) for the rescue. In Mumbai, crocodiles are found in the lakes in the Sanjay Gandhi National Park. The team evaluated the points from where the reptile could have entered into the residential zones. Then they were all secured and a 15-member team including Mumbai forest range officials were at work for hours to get the crocodile safe outside. “We suspect that this crocodile may have been pushed into the drainage system when Tulsi or Vihar lakes overflowed last monsoon, and that it survived in the drains all this while,” said Jitendra Ramgaokar, deputy conservator of forests, Thane said to a report in Hindustan Times. This is a very scary thing to be clueless about crocs in our drains.

Take a look at the entire incident of the crocodile rescue by RAWW:

The water level in the drain was brought down to spot the crocodile. Nets were set up inside but the crocodile was not getting trapped inside, it was sitting in the hollows inside the drain. The crocodile was finally set inside the trap at 1 am in the night. It was then examined by a forest department veterinarian and was released into a safe natural habitat on the next day. Crocodiles have been spotted in Powai before during the monsoons, but the current area is far from the lakes.

There were no injuries because of the reptile but it is definitely not a thing to look forward to have such crocodiles swimming in the drains. It is a thing to ponder upon about humans entering into the forest habitats and how we are causing an imbalance in the entire environment.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Mar 09, 2018 01:56 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).