- Monday, February 24, 2025
By: Shubham Ghosh
It was an unusual creature: a crocodile that only consumed rice and jaggery offerings at a temple. The devotees at Sri Ananthapadmanabha Swamy Temple in Kasaragod in the southern Indian state of Kerala looked up to it with great curiosity. But all that became a part of history on Sunday (9) when ‘Babiya’, as the reptile was called, died on Sunday (9) night at the age of 75.
The animal was never a threat to anyone and given the name of a ‘vegetarian’ or even ‘divine’ crocodile. It was not keeping well for the past few days and was taken to veterinary doctors from Pilikula Biolological Park in Mangaluru in the neighbouring state of Karnataka, Udayakumar R Gatty, a trustee of the temple, told Manorama.
Saddened to hear that Divine Crocodile Babiya which was guarding Sri Anantapura Lake Temple in #Kasaragod of Kerala is no more.!!
Vegetarian Babiya lived in Temple lake for the last 70+ years by eating the Prasadam of Sri Ananthapadmanabha Swamy
Om Shanti? pic.twitter.com/nataU6Jlwa
— Girish Bharadwaj (@Girishvhp) October 10, 2022
“In the past two days, Babiya did not come up for food. We launched a search but could not find it. Sunday night, we saw it dead in the lake,” he was quoted as saying.
According to a report by India’s The Hindu newspaper, it is believed that Babiya appeared in the pond of the temple just days after a British soldier shot a crocodile in the temple.
It was decided that the crocodile would be buried in the temple grounds as a mark of respect. Many devotees paid tributes to Babiya whose carcass was kept in a mobile freezer.
