A roaming tiger…

An Indian university had to cancel an event expected to attract 10,000 students because a tiger roamed its campus in Bhopal, central India, for several days, India’s forestry and press services said Monday.

About fifty forest service officers were deployed to try to find and capture the animal for transport to the forest area where it normally lives. The tiger, wandering around this enormous campus for a week, had already had time to kill two cows.

“We have also set up ten camera traps to track his movements, as well as a cage, and we are waiting. But the tiger didn’t come out,” said Alok Pathak, a forestry officer in the area.

According to Mr Pathak, the animal is one of twelve tigers living in the jungle around Bhopal, the capital of Madhya Pradesh state.

Wandering tigers have been roaming around the giant campus since last Monday, which covers the forest area and offers good water sources, good vegetation cover, not to mention livestock that roam freely as food pantry, Pathak said. .

The Department of Forestry has ensured that the campus is safe for students in broad daylight, while recommending that everyone “do not go out alone, by bicycle or on foot after dark”.

The presence of the beast has forced the university to postpone its annual technology festival which was due to take place from Saturday with the participation of 10,000 students from across India.

“Just imagining! A technology festival was rescheduled because of a tiger, a student told The Times of India newspaper. But we understand that this is the only solution. We can’t take any chances with tigers roaming around campus. »

According to the newspaper, classes were held online over the past week for two days until the Department of Forestry announced that face-to-face classes were possible during the day without security concerns.

In addition, a tiger that killed at least nine people in the state of Bihar (East) was killed in an operation decided by the authorities that deployed 200 people.

Conservationists blame the rapid expansion of human habitat around the forest and the lack of biological corridors for wildlife migration in various parts of India.

According to government figures, 225 people died in India from tiger attacks between 2014 and 2019.

…and the divine crocodile

An old “divine” and “vegetarian” crocodile who lived in a lake near a Hindu temple in the southern Indian state of Kerala, was found dead, cared for in a religious cemetery, mourned by hundreds of people, before being buried.

The venerable animal, named Babia, was found lifeless floating on the surface of the lake on Monday morning.

Hundreds of devotees attended the funeral of Babia, who was considered the guardian of Swamy Sri Ananthapadmanabha Temple in Kasaragod, for nearly 80 years, temple secretary Ramachandran Bhat said.

The temple, dedicated to the Hindu god Vishnu, is 3,000 years old, Bhat said, saying the “divine” crocodile had previously lived alone in the temple’s lake for several centuries.

“The last holy crocodile was shot by British soldiers in 1940 and after that Babia appeared in the lake,” Bhat continued, adding that temple officials and worshipers were expecting another crocodile to appear at any time.

“We don’t know where it came from, but the lake is connected to an underground cave,” Bhat said.

Babia would never attack an animal or a human, not even biting any of the children who came to touch him so that he would bring them good luck.

Many believe him to be a “vegetarian”, being fed prasadam, an offering made of rice and palm sugar, blessed by temple priests. In this regard, Mr Bhat said he was skeptical, knowing that “there are fish in the lake”.

The sacred animal’s body is decorated with flowers and blessed before being carried on a palanquin, among weeping people, and then buried in the temple grounds.

India’s Minister of Agriculture and Farmer Welfare, Shobha Karandlaje, paid tribute on Twitter to the “crocodile of God”.

“Divine crocodile lived in temple lake for more than 70 years eating rice and sugar from Sri Ananthapadmanabha Swamy’s prasadam and watching over the temple,” he tweeted.