Two-foot-long Baby Crocodile Visits Civic-run Swimming Pool in Mumbai; Rescued – News18

A two-foot-long baby crocodile was found in a swimming pool of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) in Dadar area here early Tuesday morning, an official said.

There is a private zoo nearby and there were incidents in the past of reptiles from there entering the pool premises, claimed a local leader of the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS), but civic officials could not throw light on the issue.

The reptile was rescued and handed over to the forest department for releasing it into is natural habitat, officials said.

A sanitation worker noticed it around 5.30 am while inspecting the Mahatma Gandhi Jaltaran Talao, an Olympic-sized swimming pool, before the facility opened for the day, a BMC release said.

“An investigation is underway to find out how the crocodile ended up in the swimming pool and necessary action will be taken based on it,” deputy municipal commissioner Kishor Gandhi said in the release.

A senior BMC official, who did not wish to be named, ruled out the possibility of the reptile slipping in from the sea side as there is a 15-20 feet wall in between.

But reptiles, including a python, had entered the swimming pool premises thrice in the recent past, and the BMC had informed the police then and it has written to them afresh after the latest `sighting’, he said.

The swimming pool shares a border with a private zoo, and there is no wall on that side, he added.

MNS leader Sandeep Deshpande and some members of the swimming pool, while speaking to media, claimed that reptiles from this zoo had slipped into the pool premises on a few occasions.

BMC officials offered no comment on the claim.

(This story has not been edited by News18 staff and is published from a syndicated news agency feed – PTI)