To woo tourists, the forest personnel of the Bhitarkanika National Park recently released a male wild estuarine crocodile at the pond, where Hyderabadi, a 39-year-old female crocodile, had been staying till last year.According to Kanika Forest Ranger Akhaya Kumar Nayak, the forest personnel had in March rescued the 7.5-foot-long male crocodile from a prawn ghery and released into the pen of ‘Hyderabadi’.
Nayak said Hyderabadi and albino Gori had been hatched at the Dangamala Crocodile Research and Conservation centre in 1975. Then forest officials, as per a decision, kept the two in separate pens for research and preservation purpose. Since then, Hyderabadi had been staying in the pen. She skipped the pen last year and reportedly went into the wild. The reptile is yet to return to the pen. Even, its whereabouts are not yet known.
Sources said Hyderabadi went out of her pen just a couple of months ago. The forest personnel have released the rescued reptile in the Hyderbadi’s pen only to give an impression that Hyderabadi is back.