Officers Attempt To Catch Crocodiles Entering Residents' Ponds In Bintan

Officers monitor the snares installed to catch crocodiles that enter a resident's pond in Kampung Jawa, East Bintan District, Bintan Regency, Riau Islands Province, Thursday (28/7/2022). (ANTARA/HO-UPTD East Bintan Damkar)

BINTAN - Firefighters are trying to catch and evacuate a crocodile about two meters long that entered a pool owned by residents in Kampung Jawa, East Bintan District, Bintan Regency, Riau Islands.

The crocodile is suspected to have been in a resident's pool measuring 6×8 meters with a depth of about four meters.

"According to the pool owner, Udin, the crocodile entered from the Lekop Bintan River when a major flood occurred some time ago," said Head of the Regional Technical Implementation Unit for the East Bintan Fire Department, Nurwendi, as quoted by ANTARA, Thursday, July 28.

Firefighters and the Civil Service Police Unit, according to him, set a snare with chicken carcass bait in the pond to catch the crocodile.

"We believe the crocodile will eat the dead chicken bait, because there is no other food in the pond," he said.

Nurwendi said officers were trying to catch and move the crocodile to its natural habitat so as not to endanger the safety of local residents.

Nurwendi appealed to the villagers to temporarily not move around the pond where the crocodile is located.

According to him, in mid-June 2022, firefighters evacuated a 1.5-meter crocodile that had entered the river area in Kampung Kolong Enam, East Bintan, and then moved it to the crocodile's habitat.