As the rains are spawning landslides in the mountains they are in the plains bringing in their wake not just the problem of water logging but the scare of snakes and crocodiles stealing their ways into the villages. The people of Kangri village were scared as they saw a five-feet long snake having strayed into the house of a villager on Wednesday. The villagers killed it with sticks after which it was thrown in the Ganga. Mondaynight had seen a full-grown crocodile having sneaked its way in a house in Allavalpur village. The scared villagers had informed the forest department officials. The forest guards had reached the place about ten hours and the wild amphibian had been captured in a net after the forest guards had struggled with it for close to two hours.
The villages which are situated on the banks of Ganga are the most vulnerable during the rainy season when such incidents frequently occur. Many from such villages say that they spend sleepless nights when it rains torrentially particularly during the night hours. “Since it was raining heavily we did not wait for the forest guards and we ourselves had the snake killed with a hockey stick,” said Roshan lal, a villager from Kangri.
The crocodile had forayed into the house of one Narender Kumar in Allavalpur village under luxor tehsil in the wee hours of Monday. Narender had frozen in horror as he had seen a full-grown crocodile lying near his bed.
As he had screamed his family members and neighbours had rushed in to see the blood-curdling sight. As they had tried to shoo it away it had started moving towards them menacingly. It had also attacked a pet dog but it had a narrow escape. The panicky villagers had informed the forest department. But it had taken them 10 long hours to arrive. Finally, the crocodile had been caught in a net. “We are still scared. We must remain awake when it rains that heavily during the night hours. Such things might recur,” said a villager Monu.
A forest range officer Digambar Bharti said, “We had reached late as we had gone to attend the last rites of a colleague. We captured the crocodile in a net after struggling with it for a couple of hours. later, it was released in the Ganga in the reserve forest area.”