Caught On Camera: Laughing Men Batter Crocodile With Stones In Karnataka

Bengaluru: In a village in north Karnataka, a group of men surround a crocodile, which had strayed out of a river and on to a nearby field, and viciously beat it with stones and bricks until its head is a bloody mess.

As the men laugh, two of them try to pull the crocodile by its tail, presuming it to be dead. Another person, steps over the now motionless reptile. The crocodile, surprisingly still alive, twists its battered and bleeding head in response, after which one of the men attacks it again with a stone.

The entire act of cruelty is seen on video, which appears to have been shot on a mobile phone.
 The incident is believed to have taken place in a village called Shivnur on the banks of River Krishna in Yadgir district, about 600 kilometres from state capital Bengaluru. However, it is not clear when exactly the incident took place.

The Deputy Conservator of Forests of Yadgir, Y Chakrapani, told NDTV that after the pictures of the dead crocodile surfaced in a local newspaper, he visited Shivnur. Villagers there told him they had seen a dead crocodile about 20 days ago, but there was no evidence of it when he visited.

The video of the crocodile that was attacked would seem to be a different case and Mr Chakrapani said it was not clear where the location was.

Killing a crocodile is a violation of the Wildlife Act and the forest department is still investigating the attack.

The reptile seen in the videos is a mugger or marsh crocodile which does not usually attack humans. It is a scheduled or protected animal and killing it would mean both a fine and imprisonment.

The brutal killing of the crocodile has surfaced just days after a police horse's leg was broken during a protest in Uttarakhand and a bear was shot dead using 100 bullets in Chhattisgarh.