Babiya, 'vegetarian' crocodile of Kasaragod lake temple, dies

Babiya, a crocodile at Kerala's Sri Ananthapadmanabha Swamy temple which was said to be many decades old and "vegetarian", has died, PTI reported.

The report quoted temple officials as saying that the lone crocodile that inhabited the lake of the temple in Kasaragod district was found dead late on Sunday night.

The crocodile was missing since Saturday, and the carcass was found floating on the lake around 11.30 pm on Sunday night. It put on public display as hundreds of people turned up to pay their respects.

Officials at the temple claimed the crocodile was a vegetarian which ate only the 'prasadam' made there and did not harm the fish.

The crocodile reportedly had free access to all the places in the temple and at times used to come out to bask in the sun.

Among those who tweeted about it was Union Minister of State for Agriculture and Farmers' Welfare Shobha Karandlaje, who said Babiya had lived at the temple for 70 years.

"Babiya, the god's own crocodile of Sri Anantapura Lake temple has reached Vishnu Padam. The divine crocodile lived in the temple's lake for over 70 years by eating the rice & jaggery prasadam of Sri Ananthapadmanabha Swamy & guarded the temple. May she attain Sadgati, Om Shanti!," she tweeted.

The presence of a single crocodile in the small lake far away from the other water bodies was seen by many as an "unusual phenomenon".

A report in The Hindu said locals believe that Babiya appeared in the temple lake days after a British soldier shot another crocodile there in 1945.

The temple at Ananthapura near Kumbla in the northern district of Kasaragod says in its website that it is the original source of the famous Sri Anantha Padmanabha Swamy temple of Thiruvananthapuram.

The site also claims that the temple lake would always have one crocodile and the elders in the locality used to say Babiya was the third one in a row they had seen.