SUKKUR: An eight-year-old girl was attacked and eaten alive by a gigantic crocodile emerged from a side of Nara Canal in Saleh Pat area of Sukkur in Sindh on Friday.
According to the sources, the girl was standing on an end of the Nara Canal where the crocodile drowned her and eaten the girl alive after a sudden attack.
Sources further said the crocodile gripped the girl into its strong jaws and swallowed alive after floating into deep water.
Receiving information about the incident, area people reached the site to save the girl from the reptile, however, the efforts remained unsuccessful, sources added.
According to a resident, Saleem Ditta who also witnessed the horrifying moment, the crocodile was seemingly an elderly and its length was more than 16 feet.
He said, “It is not the first time that the local people living in nearby villages of the Nara Canal have faced the reptile attacks”.
Ditta further said earlier a nine feet crocodile had attacked a goat; however, the residents had managed to catch it and tied it using a rope.
Later, a team of wildlife department had rushed to the village and released the large reptile in the canal, he added.
Sindh Wildlife Department officials said that more than 300 crocodiles of different species are present in the Nara Canal, a delta channel built on the left bank of the Indus River in Sindh.
The Nara valley, known as a wetland complex of about 225 small and large lakes, is one of the natural habitats for marsh crocodiles (Crocodulus palustris). The canal area, which includes about 200 lakes and marshes, is a great refuge for crocodiles and other wildlife.
The entire wetland complex is renowned for being home to otters, freshwater turtles, Indian pythons, chameleon hog dear and nilgai. Its ecological health is crucial for the downstream stretches of the transboundary Indus basin.