Hundreds Bemoan Temple’s ‘Vegetarian’ Crocodile In India

News Desk

India: Hundreds of citizens attended the funeral of a crocodile, named Babia, believed to have survived for decades in a Hindu temple eating only vegetables.

According to a foreign news agency report, the crocodile was found dead in the lake on the morning of October 10. Locals believe that it had not been fed for several days.

The temple secretary Ramachandran Bhat said, “Babia, protected the Sri Anantha Padmanabha Swamy temple in the southern state of Kerala by hiding around a lake for about 80 years.”

“The temple in Kasaragod is 3,000 years old and has been protected for centuries by the crocodile,” Bhat mentioned.

He told that the last crocodile was shot dead by the British military in 1940 and after that Babia appeared in the lake, adding that “We cannot say where this crocodile came from, but the lake is connected to caves underneath it.”

Locals believed that Babia has never attacked another animal or any human, including children who were brought on the shore of the lake to touch it to gain its blessings.

Many believed that it survived only on green foods. But temple secretary refuted this claim “because there are fish in the lake”.

People laid flowers on its corpse, wrapped it in coconut leaves, and buried it in the temple premises.

Indian Minister of State for Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Shobha Karandlaje tweeted that the crocodile was fed a meat-free diet and kept safe from all harm or evil.