CG-CROCODILE-VILLAGE

Villagers mourn crocodile's death, take out funeral procession
    Raipur, Jan 10 (PTI) An entire village in Chhattisgarh
assembled to bid an emotional adieu to a crocodile, whom they
used to worship as their protector, after the animal died.
    For residents of Bawa Mohtara village in Bemetara
district, the around 130-year-old crocodile, whom they had
fondly named as 'Gangaram', was next to God.
    After the reptile died in a village pond, the grief-
stricken residents took out its funeral procession and did not
cook food that day.
    They also decided to set up a memorial on the pond's
bank where it was buried, sarpanch (village head) Mohan Sahu
told PTI, adding that they were also thinking of constructing
a temple in its memory.
    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, he said.
    Around 500 villagers took out its funeral procession
and performed the last rites. They touched the carcass to seek
its blessings, he said.
    "The villagers had so much affection for the reptile
that many of them did not even cook food the day it died.
Locals had long back named it 'Gangaram'. They used to worship
it as a deity and the protector of the village," he said.
    Sahu claimed that Gangaram lived in the village's main
pond for over 100 years as even his late grandfather had seen
it there since his childhood.
    The villagers, including children, used to bathe
everyday in the pond but the reptile never harmed them even
when they swam close to it, he said.
    "In the past, the crocodile had crawled over to some
nearby villagesa couple of timesand we had to bring it back
to the pond," the sarpanch said.
    Praising the villagers' affection for the crocodile,
Bemetara's sub-divisional officer of forest R K Sinha said
they have set a good example of "human-animal coexistence",
when people generally maintain a distance from carnivores.
    "After getting information about its death, the forest
personnel went there and a post-mortem was conducted by
veterinarians," he said.
    The animal, estimated to be around 130 years' old and
weighing about 250 kg, died of natural causes, Sinha said.
    "After the autopsy, the carcass was handed over to the
villagers as they wanted to perform it final rites," he added.
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