The body of a 44-year-old man who disappeared while collecting lotus flowers in a canal near the Bellanwila lake has been recovered, two days after he went missing in what has been reported as a crocodile attack.
The dead man was identified as Madura Jinendra, a father of two from Kananwila, Horana, Hiru News reported, citing Boralesgamuwa Police.
He earned his living gathering flowers and regularly worked the Bellanwila and Bellanthara areas. He entered a canal near the lake on 27 August to collect lotus flowers and disappeared a short time later.
Residents alerted police, who searched the area that day without finding him. On Saturday afternoon police were told a body was floating in a canal roughly 100 metres from where he was last seen. It was recovered and Boralesgamuwa Police are continuing their investigation.
What has not been established
Hiru described the man as having “reportedly” been attacked by a crocodile, and the account of an attack appears to rest on what was said at the time of his disappearance rather than on any finding by the authorities. The report does not say whether anyone witnessed an attack, and no post-mortem finding on the cause of death has been reported.
That distinction matters: a drowning and a crocodile attack in the same canal would produce the same missing-person report, and only an examination can separate them.
A wetland with a known crocodile population
The canal system around the Bellanwila–Attidiya marsh, on Colombo’s southern edge, is a protected wetland sanctuary within a heavily built-up area, and saltwater crocodiles are established in the waterways that drain it. Encounters are a recurring feature of the area rather than a rarity — in August a crocodile was found inside the banquet hall of a Battaramulla hotel a few kilometres away, on the same marsh network.
People whose work takes them into the water — flower gatherers, bathers and those collecting reeds or fish — carry most of that risk, and do so in canals that sit within walking distance of dense suburban housing.
No other verified Sri Lankan newsroom had reported the recovery at the time of writing.
