The Gujarat forest department is relocating crocodiles from two ponds in the area of Sardar Sarovar Dam premises on the Narmada river so that a seaplane service can be started to and fro from the newly constructed Statue of Unity. There are around 500 crocodiles in these ponds and they are an endangered species and they fall under Schedule 1 of the Wildlife Protection Act.
The 15 crocodiles that have been caught so far have been in the custody of the forest department for a week after which the department decided to release them into the Sardar Sarovar Narmada Dam reservoir. Now leading environment activists of Gujarat and Paryavaran Suraksha Samiti of Vadodara have served legal notices to the different departments of the government for capturing and dislocating these Schedule 1 endangered crocodiles.
Previously, a multi-level committee which included the officials of the Civil Aviation Department cleared a pond which is locally known as the ‘Magar talav’ (crocodile pond) to construct a seaplane terminal to connect the Gujarat cities to the statue site.
Dr Jitendra Gavali, the director of the Community Science Centre in Vadodara, said the transfer of crocodiles in such large numbers to pave the way for a seaplane terminal was “against the principles of the Wildlife Protection Act”.
