In the mornings, I helped the workers clean the croc pits, a task which I thoroughly enjoyed. We would jump into the pits with big sticks and chase all the crocs into the water. Then we would clean out the croc shit and the left overs of their food which included a lot of bones. This exercise was usually done with a male worker first chasing the crocs into the water. Then the remaining 3 to 4 women would help with brooms, baskets and spades. Occasionally, we would have a crocodile wanting us to get out of his pit instead. No matter how hard you hit him on his nose he would chase you around until he would finally give in, so to speak, and dash into the water with a big splash or sometimes, glide gracefully to where he could join his friends who sometimes numbered a thousand! (The Croc Bank had around seven thousand crocs at the time I was there.)
I also had occasion to participate a few times in the operations involved in shifting crocodiles from one location to another. That was quite an adventure in itself!
One day Rom and Harry decided to shift the largest male Gharial in the Croc Bank from one pit to another as it had broken its upper jaw in a fight with another male during the previous breeding season.
Normally you try to catch a croc by throwing a sort of a small anchor in and when the croc latches on to it you try and pull it out. Once it is out, about 10-15 people quickly jump and sit on it. (That's the only way to prevent a croc from getting back into water!). With its mouth bound by rubber bands, the croc is then rolled onto a ladder, bound to it, lifted and carried to the pit that it has to be transferred to. An average adult croc is about 250 kg and about two to three metres long. It takes 15-20 people to carry it.
Once it is released in the pool the ropes and rubber bands are removed and the last unfortunate or brave man, depending on how you look at it, makes a run for his life over the edge of the pond onto the safety of dry land.
As we were transferring the male Gharial into a female mugger pit, Harry jokingly yelled: "What do you think we will get-a Ghammer?" Of course crocs only mate with others of their own species and there is no way a Gharial and mugger will get together. We were in fact transferring the male here in order to give it a period of rest and recovery from fighting with other males.
Another time the exercise was because `Jaws III' needed female company. Jaws III is the biggest captive salt water crocodile in India. He is about 16 feet and ranks may be, 3rd or 4th in the world in terms of his length. Therefore, after Part II of `The Great White Man-eating Shark' was produced, called Jaws II, the Croc Bank rightly decided to name its crocodile `Jaws III'.
Jaws III was a loner and would kill anything including other crocs which fell into his pit. So he lived a lonely, if majestic life. Whenever we jumped into his pit to clean it he would come charging at us even if he was in the water. He seemed to give us more exercise than all of us put together gave him. Anyway, the Croc Bank, after ten years, finally felt it was time to find a him bride. Since he had on more than one occasion bashed his head against a wall sensing a female in the opposite pit, we knew he was ready!
The first female we caught was about to be thrown into his pit when I asked to examine her. (I had just learnt how to sex them). I began to feel inside the crocodile and felt a hemipenis! "It's a male," I shouted. "Can't be," said Gerry, "let me check." After a few seconds there was a reassuring nod from Gerry: "Yes, Rom, it's a male!"
"Rahul, Champion Sexer," cried Gerry.