VIETNAM NEWS (Hanoi) 28 November 07 Elusive crocodiles and evasive owners (Hong Van)
More than 200 crocodiles that escaped earlier this month from the country’s largest croco-dile farm in Khanh Hoa Province have been captured or shot dead.
While 216 crocodiles have been accounted for, it is still not known how many are still on the loose, some possibly weighing up to 200 kilograms.
It might sound like a plot from a horror movie, but not for people living in Khanh Vinh and Dien Khanh districts and Nha Trang City. Even if just one reptile is in the waterways near any human settlement, people’s lives will be in grave danger.
The breakout occurred at Khanh Viet Company (Khatoco)’s farm on November 10 when, following days of heavy rain, floodwaters broke the cages that held the crocodiles.
Khatoco, which also farms ostriches and bears for commercial purposes, has asked people, the police and soldiers to help find the remaining reptiles.
Vo Lam Phi, chairman of the Khanh Hoa Province people’s committee, has asked Khatoco to relocate its farm to another area for safety reasons.
The company has said that of the 5,000 crocodiles it had before the floods, 216 have been found and 1,440 moved to a safer area. But it claims not to know how many are still in the farm.
The fact that it is being ‘discreet’ about the numbers is worrying. Khatoco’s reply to concerns raised by the public about the number of crocodiles on the loose is anything but assuring either.
Le Tien Anh, its deputy director, said the fact that Siamese crocodiles – the species bred on the farm – tended to stay close to the farm and that no other large crocodiles had been spotted in the last few days meant that only young ones had escaped.
"Small crocodiles’ ability to exist in the wild is very poor," he added.
But with people’s lives at stake, chances can hardly be taken.
Speaking to VietNamNet, Nguyen Thanh Hai, who lives near the farm, said if the crocodiles continued to menace rivers or swamps, they would become dangerous to humans after a few years when they grew up, considering the limited food supply.
The Cau and Cai rivers near the 10ha farm are also popular swimming spots for children.
Though crocodile farming is a lucrative business that is attracting more and more entrepreneurs, government agencies have not kept a close eye on this activity.
A few months ago the media reported some crocodile farm workers as admitting that they often forgot to lock the gates behind them after feeding crocodiles.
Dozens of the creatures are feared to have escaped into the canals and rivers in HCM City. But because of the fear of losing their licences, the owners never report such incidents to the authorities.
During the annual check, when asked about the difference between the number of crocodiles registered and the actual numbers present, the owners’ stock reply is some have died.
Government agencies should be more long-term sighted when it allows people to set up crocodile farms.
The farms should not be allowed to do what Khatoco did with respect to the cages when setting up its farm in 2003 – it built them only up to the approximate height that local people remembered floods as rising in the past. Obviously, allowance should be made for freak floods.
The farms’ location should also be considered carefully. In Khatoco’s case, it is in the upper river basin, and the crocodiles had easy access to a lot of water to flee and hide.
Last but by no means of least importance, the forest protection agency in charge of monitoring the crocodiles should conduct random checks more frequently and conduct training programmes to make farm owners aware of their responsibility when a crocodile escapes.
Elusive crocodiles and evasive owners