Posted on 01/26/2019 5:45:51 PM PST by robowombat
Indian officials have begun relocating some 300 crocodiles from a reservoir next to the world's tallest statue to allow a seaplane service for visitors.
The animals, some around 3m (9ft 9in) long, are being lured into metal cages and sent elsewhere in the western state of Gujarat.
The 182m statue of independence hero Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel was inaugurated last October.
The bronze-clad statue sculpture, located some 200km (125 miles) from the state's main city of Ahmedabad, has become a popular attraction. Indian farmers fume at cost of statue
But there are no train services and most tourists reach the site, known as "Statue of Unity", by bus.
The statue is nearly twice as tall as the Statue of Liberty in New York
Local forestry official Anuradha Sahu said the instruction had come from the state government "for safety reasons as the tourist influx has increased", AFP news agency reports. So far about a dozen crocodiles have been removed and transported on the back of pick-up trucks.
Community Science Centre Director Jitendra Gavali said the decision to remove the crocodiles was a violation of the country's wildlife protection legislation.
"The government is disturbing their habitat and putting their lives at risk," Dr Gavali was quoted by the Times of India as saying. "Also, the government hasn't thought out where it will release the captured crocodiles safely." Bittu Sahgal, editor of the wildlife magazine Sanctuary Asia, was another critic of the plan.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi - who, like Patel, was born in Gujarat - commissioned the statue when he was the state's chief minister in 2010. In recent years, Mr Modi's ruling Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has embraced Patel in an attempt to claim his legacy. The statue cost 29.9bn rupees (£330m; $430m).
(Excerpt) Read more at bbc.com ...
Is the Rio Grande too cold for them?
Well they sure didn't play very aggressive today against TCU.
Might as well kill them. “Relocating” them will result in most of them dying a slow death and the ones that don’t die will have made their way back.
If you grew up in Chicago and somebody dropped you off in the wilds of Alaska you probably wouldn’t last too long either.
“Is the Rio Grande too cold for them?”
Yes, pity. They probably would develop a taste for Mexican food.
Texas Parks & Wildlife needs funds for a restocking program.
It’s always the gators
Ozymandias
BY PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY
I met a traveller from an antique land,
Who said—“Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. . . . Near them, on the sand,
Half sunk a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed;
And on the pedestal, these words appear:
My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings;
Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal Wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.”
Exactly.
I see you understand reality.
These crocs have territory and fit into a pecking order.
Transporting them to a new place means they push out an existing croc, or they die. If they are successful, the other croc probably dies.
I flatter myself that I’m ingenious, too, though not to the Rio Grande.
Indigenous.
It is Saturday night and still working on the beer.
That’s a lot of boots.
If you enjoy it, it isn’t really work.
Tourists gotta eat too!
What is the second largest statue?
How stupid is that? Just kill them.
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