Recently, the Sri Ananthapura temple in the Kasaragod district of northern Kerala (India) suddenly became famous because a vegetarian crocodile named “Babiya” has lived there for more than 70 years.
The image of a large crocodile inside the Sri Ananthapadmanabh Temple made international headlines last year and made the temple much more famous. This crocodile lives in a small pond inside the temple grounds, its daily job is to wait for shamans to bring it daily meals, which are always vegetarian.
The image of a crocodile living in the temple grounds
The monks at the temple claim that Babiya lived on vegetarian rice only for the duration of his stay at the temple, which is more than seven decades.
No one really knows how Babiya got to the Kerala temple, but it’s been there for so long that everyone considers it part of the temple. The monks at the temple claim that the reptile has never once tried to attack them and even consider it a sacred entity.
“Legend has it that in 1945, a crocodile (later known as Babiya) appeared in the temple pond a few days after a British army officer was mysteriously killed. It is said that this person shot a crocodile that was residing in the temple at the time,” Mahalingeshwara Bhat, chairman of the temple’s board of directors, told The Indian Express.
Pictures of Babiya with everyone
Usually, Babiya waits for the monks to bring him food and is always vegetarian. The monks said that Babiya only eats cooked rice and eats 1kg of rice every day. According to the people living at the Sri Ananthapadmanabha temple, Babiya never eats meat and doesn’t even attack the fish that live in the pond with it.
However, crocodile expert Anirban Chaudhuri said it was more likely that the animal ate fish in ponds on the temple grounds and ate rice as part of conditioned behaviour. Feeding him two meals a day is just his supplement.
Another interesting thing about Babiya is that despite having lived at the temple for 70 years, it has never attacked anyone there. Last year, Babiya roamed around and entered the temple grounds to be naughty. Abbot Chandraprakash Nambisan immediately asked him to return to the pond. Surprisingly, Babiya listened and returned to its favorite place.
