Village hero saves lives by catching crocodile with a tiny bit of rope
An Indonesian villager has been hailed a hero by locals after capturing a 13-foot crocodile using just a piece of rope.
The giant reptile had been prowling the area for at least two days, terrifying residents on the island of Sulawesi.
Video footage shows Usman, who, like many Indonesians, goes by one name, and his son wrangling the massive crocodile using a thin rope on Saturday, June 25.
The 53-year-old said: ‘If we had left it, it would have come on to land and we wouldn’t have been able to go into the rice fields.
‘There are also drainage channels around the roads here, places where locals fish. It would have been dangerous if it had crawled up the drainage channels.
‘I had to take a chance.’
The crocodile’s capture was lauded by other villagers in the village of Ambau Indah.
‘What Usman has done is appreciated by the community. Some even consider it a heroic act, because it saved many people who could have become victims,’ Umar Siddiq Al Farizi said.
In the past there had been several crocodile attacks in the area, he said.
He also welcomed Usman’s decision to the report the capture to authorities.
Umar added: ‘He (Usman) considered this a rare animal whose habitat had been damaged by floods. He thought it should be protected and not killed.’
The crocodile, measuring 4.3 metres, will be released back into the wild, an official at the local Natural Resources Conservation Agency said.
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