SEVERE DROUGHT conditions across India’s southern Karnataka province following deficient monsoon rains are having an ominous effect on the region’s crocodiles, which are beginning to attack humans and carry away livestock from villages to sustain themselves as their water bodies turn dry.
Officials from the state’s Bagalkot district, 500km north of the state capital Bangalore, said about 30 famished crocodiles spread panic in the area after being discovered in fields across the region looking for human and animal prey as sustenance.
They said a group of four reptiles had over the past four weeks attacked at least two villagers, injuring them seriously, and killed at least 10 sheep in two villages located on the banks of a fast-drying river.
“With levels in water bodies hitting rock bottom, dozens of crocodiles have ventured into sugar cane fields and villages in search of food and to secure habitation,” a local district official said.
Forest officials, he added, had captured 14 crocodiles from villages situated on rivers running through the district and released them at a nearby dam which, for now, still had some water.
KV Naik, Bagalkot deputy conservator of forests, cautioned people living near river banks to be vigilant as the crocodile threat was likely to increase if drought conditions continued.
Karnataka is not the only Indian province suffering the ravages of a feeble monsoon that has, so far, performed weakly over nearly a third of India, especially in the north, west and the south.
The monsoon showers that provide an annual lifeline to India, which has a largely agrarian economy, have this season been 40 per cent below average in key agricultural areas, while 84 vital reservoirs were filled to only 19 per cent of their required capacity.
This, in turn, has threatened to trigger a shortage of drinking water across wide swathes of the country. Given India’s grossly inadequate water storage capacity, the forthcoming winter crop has been predicted to fail. Such a failure would adversely affect the economy, federal officials said.
Meteorological experts said the situation could improve if the monsoon rains revived as forecast earlier, but the El Niño periodic climate pattern, which causes extreme weather events, is expected to set in soon and could make things even worse.
