The elusive crocodile, which had forced the closure of the Katraj lake boating for almost an year, has surfaced again, but only through Right to Information (RTI) missives.

A query under RTI, by an animal lover Umesh Naik, seeks to know the current whereabouts of the reptile. Conflicting claims by both the forest department and irrigation authorities have baffled the RTI applicant.

The crocodile was first spotted in the Katraj lake in November 2008. Intensive search operations were launched to capture it for the next few days, which proved futile.

The search efforts were abandoned later, and the Rajiv Gandhi Zoological Park authorities also suspended the lake-boating, managed by the Maharashtra Tourism Development Corporation (MTDC).

The crocodile was finally captured after eleven months. The forest officials released it into the Varasgaon dam, even though the Katraj Zoo management was willing to keep it at its animal orphanage.

However, the irrigation department, in response to an application under RTI by Naik, has flatly refuted the claim by forest officials contending that no permission is ever granted to release any animal in the dam, barring the fish.

Naik, who is the chairman of the ‘Prani-Pakshi-Vruksha Mitra Parivar’ (Friends of animals-birds-trees), had also sought to know the reptile’s whereabouts from the forest department. He received the reply, along with the copy of the ‘panchnama,’ saying it had been released in the dam. Naik has now complained as to how the crocodile was released in the dam without permission.

CROCODILE TRAIL

-The crocodile was first spotted in the Katraj lake in November 2008

- Intensive search operations were launched to capture it for the next few days, which proved futile

- The search efforts were abandoned for some time- The crocodile was captured 11 months after it was first spotted