The Jakarta Globe, November 7, 2013.
Solo. It was probably the most unusual pickup of a detainee ever made at the Mlongo subprecinct police station in Jepara, East Java. Or any police station, for that matter.
On Wednesday, officials arrived at the jail, and after a bit of a struggle trying to restrain the detainee, managed to drag him out: a 1.6-meter-long saltwater crocodile.
The juvenile croc, believed to be around two years old, was captured the night before and corralled at the police station after it bit a villager in the nearby Painah River.
Johan Setiawan, the head of the Natural Resources Conservation Agency (BKSDA) in the neighboring city of Solo, which picked up the animal on Wednesday morning, said the incident occurred as the victim, identified as Ngatno, 43, and three other men tried to catch the crocodile after spotting it swimming in a section of river close to their village.
He said Ngatno stepped on the animal’s tail, prompting the crocodile to whip back and bite him in the calf. He was taken to hospital for treatment.
The villagers then summoned the police, who managed to catch the crocodile and bring it to their jail.
“Whenever a crocodile appears in a given part of a river, we ask the villagers to please call the BKSDA for help instead of trying to catch it themselves,” Johan said.
He added the BKSDA would take the animal to a privately run conservation center for crocodiles to be checked for any injuries, before releasing it in a more secluded area of the river.
The BKSDA has also warned that there is likely another, larger, crocodile, in the same area where the juvenile was found.
“We warn the villagers living around the river to be aware of this, but ask them not to harm or hurt it,” Johan said.
Reports of crocodiles attacking villagers are infrequent, and come mostly from Kalimantan and other areas outside Java.
The saltwater crocodile is the largest species of crocodile and can grow to six meters long. It lives in rivers and deltas.
*
do 7 nov 2013 - 3:45