Mysuru: Even as a leopard cub straying into the Mysuru Zoo is still fresh in memory, comes the news of a crocodile finding its way on to the middle of a road, here in the wee hours of Saturday.
The incident came to light, when the Police night patrol Garuda team was on their night rounds on Thandi Sadak Road adjoining Karanji Lake around 2 am.
The team spotted a hump and wondered how an incomplete road hump could appear. Once the car’s headlights shone on the object, to their surprise and shock, they found a six-foot long crocodile lying on the road.
The Police immediately brought it to the notice of the Mysuru Zoo night staff, who in turn informed the Zoo Executive Director C. Ravishankar. He rushed to the spot along with his staff and spread a net on the crocodile. Before that they threw a cloth on the eyes of the crocodile and trapped it in the night.
“We released the female crocodile into Gende Hosahalli forest island near Srirangapatna. The crocodile must have strayed from Karanji Lake. There are nearly 12 crocodiles in the Lake,” said Ravishankar speaking to Star of Mysore.
Luckily, the Garuda night patrol team found the crocodile in the middle of the night lying on the road. If only it was still lying there early in the morning then the early morning walkers and joggers on this lovely stretch of road, would have been in trouble as they could have accidentally stepped on it.
“This road is not well lit as there are hardly any street lights,” said Ganesh Rao, a resident of Siddhartha Layout who is also a morning walker.
Crocodile in Kuppanna Park: It may be recalled that a healthy two-year-old male crocodile was found in Kuppanna Park just two weeks ago (Oct.11), where the Flower Show had just concluded.
The Forest officials had rescued the reptile and released into Gende Hosahalli forest island near Srirangapatna.
This used to be the road during 1950s and early 1960s , when only the Royals used, and it was not the road that walkers could use as this road was distant from the inhabitants of this city. Using this road for pedestrians then was not a normal occurence then. Those who really wanted a quiet afternoon on a day in the holiday season, took walking along the road enjoying the rich flora and fauna-wild flowers, squirrels etc.. There was once a sighting of leopard, as there was dense forest leading from the Karanji Lake. Things were so serene then remembering still the golden period.
I could imagine reading this from afar, how much this once quiet and beautiful City must have been transformed into a choking place of teeming millions of souls-the rapidly expanding numbers of inhabitants in the newly created extensions which killed off once beautiful City We knew even then, it was only a matter of time this City will also go the same way as Bengaluru had gone. The greedy IT company bosses who were given almost free land contributed their huge share setting up IT sweatshops which employs IT coolies to earn them billions of Dollars. Why should they care, if there are opportunities for them to make buckets-full of money?
With the forests denuded and lakes dried up, no wonder these wild creatures wander into the place such as this. That demonstrates, how much the country as a whole is choking with millions of population added each year. What a shame and what a deterioration!!
The Skywalker comment echo my words. The Mysore of 1980 and 1990 no one who has now settled would know. Real estate has brought in greed with IT professionals munching over it.