A 26-year-old man from Madagalla, Polpithigama, survived a crocodile attack at the Halmillagollawewa tank after forcing his hand into the animal’s mouth to free himself, the Daily Mirror reported.
Ratnayake Mudiyanselage Nilanga Nilupul Ratnayaka is being treated at Kurunegala Teaching Hospital for serious injuries to his neck, back and upper and lower limbs. He was due to undergo surgery on Thursday.
What happened
Ratnayaka told the Daily Mirror from his hospital bed that he had gone to the tank for his usual evening bath after returning from work, and was alone.
“It was dusk, and I was completely alone. There wasn’t a single person in the tank or nearby. I parked my motorcycle on the tank bund, had my bath and came up to the bund to get dressed,” he said.
He then remembered he had left a bar of soap near the water and went back down the steps for it.
“As I went down the steps towards the water, I suddenly felt something bite my foot. I fell into the water and realized that it was a crocodile,” he said.
He grabbed hold of the steps and struggled to pull his foot free. “Then it caught me by the shoulder. I gathered all the courage I had and put my hand inside the crocodile’s mouth. Somehow, I managed to free myself from its grip.”
He climbed back onto the bund and ran home. “Although the crocodile had bitten off a piece of flesh from my back, I still had enough strength to ride my motorcycle home,” he said. He was admitted first to Polpithigama Base Hospital and later transferred to Kurunegala.
Residents say the animal is known to them
A crocodile believed to be about 13 feet long has frequently been seen near the tank bund and has entered nearby home gardens, where it has preyed on dogs and other animals, residents told the newspaper.
They called on wildlife authorities to capture the animal and relocate it to a forest reserve before there are further attacks on people or livestock.
Context
Crocodile encounters have been reported repeatedly in recent weeks, though in different settings and mostly in the west of the country rather than the Kurunegala district. A flower collector who disappeared in the Bellanwila canal was found dead two days later in August, and a crocodile was found inside a banquet hall at a Battaramulla hotel the same month. Attacks of this kind are most often reported at inland tanks and canals where people bathe or wash at dawn and dusk.
Not reported
No other newsroom had carried the incident at the time of writing. The Daily Mirror does not give the date of the attack — only that surgery was scheduled for the day before publication — nor his current condition or the outcome of the surgery. It does not say whether the Department of Wildlife Conservation has been notified or has any plan to trap the animal, whether warning notices exist at the tank, or whether previous attacks have been recorded there. The species is not identified; both mugger and saltwater crocodiles are found in Sri Lanka.
