Rajdhani Express halts 25 minutes from Vadodara to help injured crocodile!

VADODARA: A crocodile in pain can throw even the superfast Rajdhani Express off its timetable. And it so happened early on Tuesday morning, when the premium train heading from Vadodara to Mumbai was left cooling its wheels for about 25 minutes en route when an injured eight-feet-long crocodile’s life lay literally sprawled on the track! It also brought a bevy of other trains running on the Vadodara-Mumbai line to a halt for nearly 45 minutes.
However, despite best efforts by railway officials as well as animal activists, the gigantic male reptile couldn’t survive the hit it had taken on its head. “I got a call at about 3.15 am from the station superintendent of Karjan railway station that a crocodile was lying on the rail track.

It was spotted by a railway patrolman about five kilometres from Karjan Miyagam railway station. I left for the spot immediately with animal activist Neha Patel in our vehicle,” said Hemant Vadhwana, a wildlife activist.
“But as the spot was located in the middle of nowhere and reaching there quickly was not possible at all. However, after our vehicle reached till Karjan railway station, we were pleasantly surprised to know that railway officials had halted Rajdhani express for about 20 minutes to help us board it and reach the exact spot, where the premium train stopped for another five minutes,” Vadhwana told TOI.

“The railway staff that was present there said that the reptile was moving its jaw for a while. We examined it and found that it had severe injuries on its head. Sadly, it died within a few minutes. The reptile was run over by some speeding train,” said Neha Patel of Agniveer Pranin Foundation.
The crocodile was then shifted to safety to allow train movement on this busy track. “Rajdhani is our premium train so we never delay it. But early on Tuesday morning, we kept the train on hold to help the rescuers reach the spot to save the crocodile’s life. Unfortunately, the reptile died of injuries,” said Santosh Kumar, station superintendent, Karjan Miyagam. “We took the dead reptile in Kisan train and handed it over to the forest department at Karjan railway station,” Patel added.

Three more crocs rescued
On Monday night, three more crocodiles were rescued by the wildlife activists from different areas. A four-feet-long crocodile was rescued from a village near Tarsali by Wildlife Rescue Trust volunteers. Another wildlife activist Hemant Vadhwana rescued a two-feet-long crocodile from the science faculty in MS University. It had ventured out of a drain nearby. A five-feet-long crocodile was also rescued by Vadhwana from Kotambi village in Halol.