Agra, Apr 11 (IANS): The Wildlife SOS and the forest department rescued a seven-foot Mugger crocodile that was found wandering in Nagla Pasi village in Uttar Pradesh's Firozabad district.

After a two-hour-long rescue operation, the large reptile was successfully released back into the wild.

The quiet village in Firozabad district turned eventful on Sunday morning after the residents were shocked to find a large crocodile, nearly seven feet in length, inside the toilet of a building. They immediately called the forest department for help, which in turn informed the Wildlife SOS seeking assistance in the rescue operation.

A four-member team from the NGO reached the location with the necessary rescue equipment. Exercising caution, the rescue team lured the crocodile into a trap cage and after a long and tiring operation, the reptile was safely extricated from the toilet.

Upon inquiring, it was found that the crocodile had wandered inside the building from a nearby pond. The Wildlife SOS rescue team eventually released the animal in a suitable natural habitat.

Surendra Kumar Saswat, Range Forest Officer, Jasrana, said, "Once we received the call from the owner of the building, we reached there immediately with our team. We also informed the Wildlife SOS which did a great job in rescuing the animal. After the rescue was done, we released the crocodile in a healthy water body."

Baiju Raj M.V., Director, Conservation Projects, Wildlife SOS, said, "This marks the second crocodile rescue from the same region in a month's time. Due to the presence of the lower Ganga canal nearby, crocodiles sometimes stray from that water body and enter the land. But major credit goes to the locals who took the correct step by informing the authorities."

Kartick Satyanarayan, Co-founder and CEO, Wildlife SOS, said, "Crocodiles are powerful animals and rescuing them from a toilet is an extremely risky task due to the shortage of space. But our rescuers have years of experience of handling such delicate situations. We aim to reduce conflict by making people aware of the reasons which force crocodiles to venture into man-made habitats, and by helping them understand the behaviour of these reptiles. These steps are indispensable to avoid any sort of human-animal conflict."