The babiya, also known as the swamp crocodile, has two rice meals a day, one in the morning and one in the afternoon. According to the staff at Sri Ananthapadmanabha Temple, he never received meat or even attacked the fish he shared the pond with.

This last part is hard to believe when you consider that a completely vegetarian diet for crocodiles is incredible.

“I feed Babiya 1 kg of rice every day. He doesn’t get meat, he doesn’t even attack the fish in the lake,” said a temple worker.

According to crocodile expert Anirban Chaudhuri, Babiya is a kind of swamp crocodile whose natural wild food is fish, these reptiles also eat small and large mammals such as deer, wild boar and others. Another interesting thing about Babiya is that in his 70 years in the temple he has never attacked anyone there.

Interestingly, when the crocodile entered the temple building last year, the high priest Chandraprakash Nambisan Babiya asked to return to the pond and surprisingly the reptile listened, turned and returned to his favorite spot.

Over the years, the Sri Ananthapadmanabha Swamy Lake Temple in Kasaragod was known as the home of harmless vegetarian crocodiles, and now many people visit it only to see Babiya, the vegetarian crocodile.

Author: Vania Dinda Marella