The killing of a seven-year-old girl by the resident crocodile in a pond at Bagerhat’s Hazrat Khan Jahan Ali shrine on Monday night, following a similar attack on a dog in April, has exposed longstanding failures in wildlife management and public safety.
The victim, Fatema, daughter of a mentally challenged woman living on the shrine premises, was dragged by the lone surviving female crocodile of the shrine pond.
Her body, bearing multiple crocodile bite marks, was recovered early Tuesday.
On April 10, the same crocodile dragged a stray dog from the pond bank. Its body bearing bite marks was found next day.
The latest attack has raised concerns among wildlife experts over the presence of a large carnivorous crocodile in an open pond frequented by thousands of devotees and visitors every year.
For centuries the shrine pond has been associated with crocodiles as legend goes that Muslim saint Hazrat Khan Jahan Ali excavated the pond and released a pair of crocodiles there. The last descendant of the pair died in 2015.
The crocodile involved in the latest attack does not descend from the original pair.
It is one of the 40 captive marsh crocodiles imported from India’s Madras Crocodile Bank Trust in 2005.
Five of the crocodiles were released at the Dhaka Zoo, 29 at the Dulahazara Safari Park, Cox’s Bazar, and six at the Khan Jahan Ali shrine pond.
According to the IUCN Red List Bangladesh 2015, the marsh crocodiles, belonging to the subspecies Crocodylus palustris, naturally occur in India, Iran, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.
There is no confirmed record of its natural occurrence in Bangladesh.
Veteran wildlife expert Shafique Haider Chowdhury, former professor of zoology at the University of Chittagong, told New Age on Tuesday that the injuries found on the bodies of both the girl and the dog indicate the crocodile did not attack for food.
‘Rather, it appears to have attacked a living being from the pond bank out of irritation,’ he said.
Shafique strongly criticised the continued presence of a wild crocodile in an open pond where large numbers of people gather daily.
In 2005, the Bangladesh government spent about $7,000 to import eight male and 32 female marsh crocodiles from India’s Madras Crocodile Bank.
At the time, Tapon Kumar Dey was serving as divisional forest officer of the Wildlife Management and Nature Conservation Division, Khulna.
Now retired, he told New Age that the crocodiles were released at the shrine pond following government instructions to maintain the historic crocodile population at the shrine pond after the original lineage had nearly disappeared.
He said that although the reptiles were bred in captivity, they remained carnivorous and had been fed fish and processed red meat at the Madras Crocodile Bank.
The lifespan of Crocodylus palustris ranges from 20 to 44 years in the wild, while captive ones may survive between 44 and 80 years depending on habitat quality and environmental conditions.
Among the six crocodiles released into the shrine ponds, only one remains alive.
The most recent death among the others was recorded in 2023.
Supernumerary professor of zoology at the University of Chittagong Md Farid Ahsan said that the crocodile might have developed altered feeding behaviour because shrine visitors, driven by superstition, routinely throw live chickens and goats into the pond seeking blessings.
Forest Department officials allege that they have little authority over the management of the crocodile because the shrine is administered by a committee dominated by local influential figures, although the Bagerhat deputy commissioner formally heads the body.
They also allege that the whole feeding activities are connected to a thriving business of live chickens and goats in the shrine area, controlled by those locally influential.
Current divisional forest officer at the Khulna Wildlife Management and Nature Conservation Division Nirmal Kumar Paul said that no proper protocol for managing such a wild animal had ever been maintained at the shrine pond.
Carnivorous species kept in captivity require special management measures, including enclosing the entire area with a 3–3.5 feet concrete wall and iron grilles, to prevent direct human contact, he said.
‘No matter whether it is bred in captivity or not, such a wild species is always risky for human gatherings,’ Nirmal noted.
Following Fatema’s death, the district administration is considering several options, including relocating the crocodile to a nearby waterbody or constructing a metal enclosure in the large pond of the shrine to restrict its movement.
Chairman of the shrine management committee and Bagerhat deputy commissioner Golam Md Baten told New Age on Tuesday that discussions on the matter were under way.
He, however, acknowledged that any attempt to relocate or confine the crocodile could trigger opposition from local people who associate its presence with religious sentiment.
‘The administration will prioritise the safety of the people,’ said the deputy commissioner.
