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THE HINDU (Chennai, India) 12 December 06 Crocodile strays into house at Peerkankaranai
Tambaram/Chennai: Residents of a house in the southern suburb Peerkankaranai near Tambaram had the shock of their life when a young crocodile strayed into their home early on Monday.
The noise made by the 4-foot long reptile woke them up. It was later caught by Wildlife personnel and released into Vandalur Zoological Park.
"... We were shocked by its sight," said Mumtaj. Her husband Abdul Salam, a Transport department employee residing on Professor Street in Peerkankaranai, said he had opened the door at 2.15 a.m. Barely had he taken a few steps, when he was confronted by the reptile.
They called the police control room, which alerted the Peerkankaranai police station.
Even as a police team arrived, neighbours crowded around Mr. Salam's house. The crocodile had, by then, entered the bathroom.
Police personnel prevented curious onlookers from getting too close to the animal. Forest department personnel, alerted by the police, arrived around 5 a.m.
Residents of Peerkankaranai said this was not their first close encounter with the reptile.
P.L.Ananthasamy, Chief Conservator of Forests and Zoo Director, said it was a wild crocodile.
There were quite a few water bodies in and around Vandalur and it could have strayed from one of them. None of the crocodiles housed in the Park had strayed into the residential area and there was no need to panic.
Crocodile strays into house at Peerkankaranai

THE HINDU (Chennai, India) 13 December 06 Stray crocodile `not from wild' (P. Oppili )
Chennai: The marsh crocodile that strayed into a house in Peerkankaranai, near Tambaram, could not have been from the wild, says herpetologist, Romulus Whitaker.
The outlying areas of Chennai have no habitats suitable for crocodiles, though such habitats must have been there two centuries ago, even within what is now the city, he maintains.
The four-foot long crocodile entered a house of a transport department employee early on Monday frightening the residents.
It was caught by the Wildlife department officials and taken to the Vandalur zoo. The reptile is healthy and is being kept in an enclosure with other crocodiles, zoo officials said.
In the last 40 years there were no records of crocodiles straying from the wild into a human habitation, Mr Whitaker says, adding that nearly two decades ago a crocodile was sighted in the Otteri Nullah near Stanley Medical College.
However, the reptile was run over by a train when it tried to cross the railway track.
Explaining how the reptile could have strayed into a human habitation, Mr. Whitaker said a kite or a crow could have picked up a two or three-day old baby crocodile from captivity (in the zoo, which could have slipped and fallen into a water body. The baby crocodile could have gone undetected for years and come out now, he says.
Stray crocodile `not from wild'