Bihar: Old man attacked by crocodile, SDRF team in search of dead body

An old man in Bihar's Bagaha has gone missing. It is feared that crocodile has made him its morsel. For the last several hours, the SDRF team is engaged in its search, but nothing has been found so far.

Bagaha (Bihar): In a shocking incident an elderly man went missing when he went to wash his hands and face in Trihut canal at Dumariya Pipariya village of Bagaha, Bihar on Wednesday evening. Though the body of the man is yet to be recovered but there are rising concerns that the man might have been taken away by crocodiles. State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) promptly arrived at the scene, following the orders of the District Magistrate (DM), to initiate a search operation for the missing body but nothing has been found so far.

The incident surfaced when 65-year-old Nathuram went to the canal bank to perform his ablutions on Wednesday evening. Suddenly there was a cry from the children playing wound that Nathuram is taken away by a crocodile. The son of the missing man, Sumit, informed the police that he was nearby with other children when the incident occurred. The children raised an alarm, indicating that Nathuram had been dragged into the river by a crocodile but as he couldn't find anything and so he informed the police.

"When I was passing by, everyone was shouting that Nathuram has been dragged into the canal by a crocodile. All the children were playing there, they saw it but when I went near the canal I couldn't see anything", said Sumit.

"We see bask of crocodiles every day on the banks of the canal. When I heard about the incident, I came to the spot and looked for the old man. When I couldn’t find him, I was sure that the crocodiles had made him their meal. I informed the police, the SDM and DM. On the order of the administration, SDRF team came to look for him," BDC Sanjay Kumar Ram said.

This is not the first case but the entire village has been deeply affected by this incident, and apprehension lingers among the residents due to the increasing presence of crocodiles near their settlement. Notably, the Gandak river is the second such river in India after the Chambal river, where crocodiles and alligators are found in large numbers.

The presence of an increased number of crocodiles in the sub-distributions along the canal, beyond the usual habitat of the Gandak river, has become a cause of worry for the villagers. The movement of these crocodiles in close proximity to human settlements has raised concerns about potential human-wildlife conflicts and the safety of the community.