Kendrapara, April 3: Residents living on the fringes of the Bhitarkanika Wildlife Sanctuary have allegedly killed a sub-adult male crocodile.

The croc might have been entangled in fishing nets. It is apprehended that the local residents later killed the trapped reptile. The body was retrieved few days ago. A case under the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972, has been registered. However no arrest has been made in this connection. Forest officials believe it might be a retaliatory assault by locals as the croc had often been eating up cattle.

“The bloated body of a six-foot long crocodile was retrieved near the Brahmani river ghat in Batipada village. There were signs of wounds on the animal. It seems that the animal got entangled in a fishing net. Later, the trapped reptile was beaten to death as it had failed to get out of the fishing net,” said Manoj Kumar Mahapatra, divisional forest officer of the Rajnagar Mangrove (Wildlife) Division.

In past months, crocodiles had gone berserk attacking humans and domestic animals at will prompting bouts of man-animal conflict in human settlements in villages near the sanctuary.

With saltwater crocodiles constantly on the prowl in the peripheral villages of the sanctuary, villagers are living under lurking threat from the man-eating reptiles. As croc attacks were mostly reported from prohibited waterbodies, those injured did not come under compensation package of the state forest department.

Human interference such as, fishing, is an offence in the crocodiles’ habitat.

Moreover, the constant intrusion of crocs into waterbodies in and around village areas had triggered a major socio-economic problem here, according to Pradeep Das, a lawyer from Dangmal village.

Local settlers often trespass into croc-infested waterbodies for fishing. In the process, they not only break the law, but also expose themselves to the preying crocs, Mahapatra said.

The crocs mostly stray into villages during rains. Besides, high tides prompt the crocs to stray.

Habitation corridor of crocs is getting squeezed following boom in their population. As a result, the reptiles encounter shortage of food. Unlawful fishing in prohibited sanctuary areas also greatly exhausts the crocs’ food reserve, according to conservationists.