MSU students awestruck by 12-ft crocodile in Bhukhi Nullah

VADODARA: Students of MS University’s science faculty were left surprised when they saw a 12-foot crocodile swimming in Bhukhi Nullah, a tributary of Vishwamitri river, which passes through the heart of the university’s main campus.
The students of first year of under-graduation and an associate professor were returning to the faculty from CV Raman building when they saw the reptile moving in the water under the footbridge.The students, instead of rushing for their next class, decided to stop over and watch the crocodile.
“I had seen the crocodile at a distance from the footbridge on Wednesday too but when I saw it under the bridge on Thursday, I realized how huge it was,” said Dr A A Ajmeri, associate professor of chemistry. As Ajmeri was taking pictures and recording videos of the crocodile, students stopped there out of curiosity but were amazed to see the huge reptile.
“I have seen crocodiles several times in the past in the Bhukhi Nullah but this one was very huge,” said Jaideep Desai, a first-year student of chemistry department. A student from geography department Siddharth Parmar was also awestruck by the reptile. “Crocodile of this size can be seen from bridges over Vishwamitri river but never imagined that it will also be visible in our campus,” Parmar said.
Ajmeri said that students now need to be careful while going towards the wild bushes along the Bhukhi Nullah. “If a crocodile of this size can swim up to Bhukhi Nullah, it can also come out on the land where students sometime venture,” he added.
The footbridge is 10-feet below the ground level and is just a few metres above the water of Bhukhi Nullah. During floods the footbridge becomes unusable as it gets completely submerged.