Karachi:
The Sindh fauna department launched an investigation into the reports of a crocodile attack on a woman in a channel emerging from the Sukkur dam.
According to publications on social networks, the alleged incident occurred in the Saleh Pat region along the Nara Canal, where a crocodile has trained a woman in deep waters. Her husband would have managed to save her.
Following reports, the Wildlife Department ordered its Sukkur team to visit the site, inspect the channel section, meet the affected family, collect the medical report and details of treatment and submit conclusions with recommendations.
A team, led by the deputy curator, Sukkur Wildlife Division, and the region’s wildlife inspector, Imam Bakhsh Samoon, visited the emergency district of the Sukkur civil hospital, but was informed that the family had left without informing the hospital staff. The ministry has repeatedly expressed its concerns concerning the illegal colonies and the constructions of huts along the Nara Canal, a known habitat of the Sindh’s native marsh crocodile.
Globally, 18 species of crocodiles exist, including six in Asia. The Sindh marsh crocodile, smaller and generally less aggressive than species of Nile and salt water, is known to feed mainly on carrion and only becomes aggressive when its territory is introduced.
Experts say that the species prefers slow -evolving waters and spends a large part of the day lounging or in burrows, surviving months without food if necessary. Slow flow stretching and external banks of the Nara canal have long been a key habitat.
In the past, similar reports of attacks of fatal crocodiles in the region have surfaced on social networks, but were then deemed false.
