Unusual visitor crawls up at croc whistler's doorstep in Konkan

MUMBAI: Last week, when Anand Charatkar, who lives in a village in the Konkan, stepped out of his house early morning, he froze for a moment before darting back into the house. Out there, in the front yard, a crocodile weighing "at least 300 kg" lay sprawled out, a pack of stray dogs from the village barking furiously albeit from a safe distance. It kept sliding beneath a parked van and slithering out.
The Charatkar family from Insuli village in Sindhudurg district is used to crocodiles lurking in river Tiracol that flows beside their home.Anand's brother, Ramchandar, has a way with crocodiles. When he whistles out to them, the reptiles come gushing towards the bank. Ramchandar, who has a poultry business, throws titbits to the crocodiles twice a week. TOI had reported this in its edition dated October 7, 2018.
"But a crocodile showing up at our doorstep came as a bit of a surprise," Ramchandar told TOI. "Usually, I feed them remains of chicken from my poultry shop. But, since New Year's day I was unable to do so for more than a week. I guess this one came for its share," he said in jest.
As word spread of the crocodile's arrival in the village, it drew villagers around the Charatkar home. Initially, a few villagers tried to shoo the crocodile towards the river, but it refused to budge and turned aggressive. "It slipped beneath the van and started gnawing at the chassis, peeling off its paint and twisting the metal," said Shailesh Kothavale, a villager who watched the early morning drama unfold in the quiet, dusty village along the Maharashtra-Goa border. "It's only when Ramchandar, whom we refer to as a friend of crocodiles, came out of the house and started whistling out in the usual manner in which he calls out to them that the reptile seemed to calm down a bit."
As he kept whistling intermittently, a few villagers brought a rope, threw it around the crocodile's snout to make a small noose. Once it was trussed up, the crocodile was gently herded towards the river more than a couple of hours after it had been spotted, said Ramchandar.
The villagers have already urged the state forest department to promote their mofussil village into a "crocodile viewing point" for tourists. "There are about 50 crocodiles in the river. By now, quiet a few people have heard of our village and many come to see the unusual camaraderie between crocodile and man [Ramchandar] who beckons them with his whistling," said Sadashiv Rane, deputy sarpanch of Insuli village. "It's time the forest development develop the crocodile point."
Deputy conservator of forests (Sindhudurg), Samadhan Chavan, confirmed that a croc had showed up in the village. "Yes, it's true. By now, crocodiles in this part of the river are used to humans. They keep moving in and out of the river," said Chavan. "The plan to develop the crocodile point is under consideration."
For now, the unusual episode has become the talk of the town in Insuli and yonder. So because the river in which the crocodiles lurk is some distance away from the Charatkar residence. The river and the house are separated by a coconut palm orchard and a narrow, ribbony road. Villagers are a tad amused that the reptile had found its way out of the river and crawled through the orchard, past the ribbony tar road to the front yard of the house of the man who feeds them.
Quite a few of the village folk shot photos and videos of the unusual visitor on their cellphones. The images have already made it to the village WhatsApp group.