Living besides the jaws of danger

It is a busy neighbourhood in Wattala, just on the outskirts of Colombo, but the murky waters of the canal now spell danger to the people of the area. Crocodiles have been spotted in the water not once but many times these past few weeks. For the people living in makeshift houses along the canal, this is not a new occurrence.

“In the 1980’s there was an incident where a pregnant mother living in one of the houses was attacked by a crocodile. This is a real menace. We go to the common pipe to bathe in the evenings with a lot of fear because it is usually in the evenings that the crocodiles are seen. This canal has not been cleaned for the past four years and there isn’t a fence or a wall to separate the boundary of the canal from the houses,” a resident Nilmini Fernando lamented.

Arumugam Shanthi, a mother of two aged 5 and two and half whose house is very close to the marshy area of the canal covered with invasive plants said that her family lives in constant fear. “Yesterday when I was in the kitchen the crocodile came close to my house. I quickly went inside with my kids. We never go to the backyard after 6 in the evening,” she said.

Reports of a crocodile or even more than one being spotted on the canal banks in the vicinity of a leading international school located here have also affected the children, their parents and teachers.

According to school authorities they had no problem until recently as their side of the canal bund is kept clean and well maintained. The security personnel who had first spotted the crocodile on the other side of the canal had alerted the Principal who had then informed the Wild Life Department about the matter.

Sources from the school say that they also took precautionary measures to make repeated announcements at the school assembly about the presence of the crocodile asking students to be vigilant. Warning notices have been put up on the trees along the canal to alert the parents.

While stating that up to now no harm has been done, the school authorities said that since crocodiles are known to be an endangered species, the issue had to be dealt by the Wild Life Department as there are instances where people in the area were trying to trap the animals, probably with the motive of getting the skin.

A staff member of the school Viraj said the crocodile he had seen was 15ft long. “On hearing the news that the crocodile had come to the canal on Monday at around 3.15, I rushed to the scene and saw this huge crocodile eating a dog. I recorded the incident on my camera phone.”

Meanwhile a parent, Manjula Perera says that she has seen the crocodile in the evenings on many occasions and has constantly warned her children on no account to go near the canal. J.M Ruvais, a trishaw driver who comes to the school every day to pick up some children says that he too had sighted a crocodile last week. “It made a few rounds in the canal and then slowly made its way to the other side where there is a banana grove as it is to this spot that dogs come to drink water.”

An official from the Assistant Director’s Office Western Province- Department of Wild Life Conservation said they had visited the site but were awaiting the assistance of a veterinary surgeon to tranquilize the crocodiles before capturing them. They have made a request to the Wild Life Department Head Office so that action could be taken. Meanwhile for the residents on the banks of the canal, these are anxious times.