Crocodile Breeding Centre, Kurukshetra


The Bhor Saidan Crocodile Breeding Centre is located 22 km from Kurukshetra and 13 km from Thanesar at Bhor Saidan village, also spelled as Bhour Saidan or Bhoor Saiydan, on the Kurukshetra-Pehowa road near , one of the pilgrimage sites in Kurukshetra in the Indian state of Haryana.
Bhor Saidan village, sitting on an ancient archeological mound of Painted Grey Ware culture ) from the Vedic period of Mahabharata, is a tirth in 48 kos parikrama of Kurukshetra on the banks of dried up river bed of Sarasvati River, was named after Kaurava hero Bhurisrava of Mahabharta, son of Somadutta.

History

The Mugger crocodiles are believed to have been brought by one of the Mahants of the nearby temples in the 1930s. In 1980, Forests Department, Haryana took over the breeding centre and the Bhor Saidan village panchayat gave 15+ acre land to the Government of Haryana to start the breeding centre. Periphery has been fenced and a mound inside the pond was created to watch the crocodiles from the close range.

Crocodiles At Bhor Saidan

Escape of Crocodiles

Around the mid 1980s, several crocodiles escaped from the Bhor Saidan Crocodile Farm and nearby Saraswati drain and several villages have now become the habitat of escaped stray crocodiles that are caught from time to time in the nearby villages such as Mukimpura and Dabkoli.

Crocodile adoption

In 2015, Forests Department, Haryana launched a scheme for individuals, organizations and corporations to adopt animals in state's zoos and breeding centres, including at Bhor Saidan Crocodile Center.

Issues

Since crocodiles have 100+ years life-span and the breeding centre lacks infrastructure to cater for large population of crocodiles, overcrowding is a problem. As a result, caretakers have stopped the external intervention e.g. artificial incubation of the eggs. Though female crocodiles eat the weak youngs and this keeps the population under control.

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