Villager in Chattisgarh gathered together to say a final and emotional goodbye to crocodile, whom they used to worship as their protector, after the animal died. The 130 years old crocodile was next to God for the residents of Bawa Mohtara village in Bemetara district, whom they had fondly named as “Gangaram”.
Knowing about the death of the crocodile in the pond, the grief stricken villagers didn’t cook for the day and took out a proper funeral procession of the dead crocodile. They also decided to set up a memorial on the banks of the pond where it was buried, the village head: Mohan Sahu told PTI, adding that they were also planning to construct a temple in the memory of the crocodile.
The 3.4 metre long crocodile was found dead on Tuesday in the village pond, located around 80 km from here, following which locals informed the forest department and the carcass was taken out of water. Around 500 villagers took out its funeral procession and performed the last rites. They touched the carcass to seek its blessings, he said. He further added that the villagers had so much affection for the reptile that many of them did not even cook food the day it died.
The villagers, including children, used to bathe everyday in the pond but the reptile never harmed them even when they swam close to it. In the past, the crocodile had crawled over to some nearby villagesa couple of times and we had to bring it back to the pond,” the sarpanch said.
Praising the villagers’ affection for the crocodile, Bemetara’s sub-divisional officerof forest R K Sinha said they have set a good example of “human-animal coexistence”, when people generally maintain a distance from carnivores.
The villagers used to worship it as a deity and the protector of the village. He also claimed that Gangaramlived in the village’s main pond for over 100 years as even his late grandfather had seen it there since his childhood. After getting information about its death, the forest personnel went there and a post-mortem was conducted by veterinarians. The animal, estimated to be around 130 years old and weighing about 250 kg, died of natural causes. After the autopsy, the carcass was handed over to the villagers as they wanted to perform it final rites.
