15 baby crocs found dead near Chandigarh

 
The carcasses of the three-month-old crocodiles were recovered from a heap of sand and gaps in the wall of their enclosure in the zoo this week.

The search for the baby crocodiles started after the zoo officials emptied the pond last week and found the babies missing. A team of officials, constituted to search the reptiles, screened the sand thinking they could be hibernating there. However, the team only found their carcasses.

While the zoo officials claim the baby crocodiles, born in June, were eaten up by a lone male crocodile, animal rights activists are crying foul saying it is impossible for one crocodile to devour all the babies in such a short span of time.

“It happens that crocodiles eat their babies. But one crocodile eating up all the babies in a short span is not plausible,” says Pyal Sodhi, founder of the NGO, People for Animals.

She questioned the efficiency of the zoo officials for failing to segregate the male crocodile from the babies.

Earlier in 2007, the same male crocodile is reported to have devoured four newborns. Charchil Kumar, field director of the zoo, confirmed that the male crocodile had killed the newborns. A forest guard has been suspended from duty on the charge of negligence.