India News | Monitor Lizard Wanders into Badarpur Power Station, Rescued

New Delhi, Jun 14 (PTI) A four-foot-long monitor lizard wandered into a toilet stall at the Badarpur Thermal Power Station (BTPS), triggering panic among employees at the facility, officials said on Monday.

Security personnel on duty stumbled upon the big reptile at the premises on Saturday night and informed authorities who contacted Wildlife SOS, a wildlife conservation NGO.

A three-member team from the NGO rushed to the location. However, the reptile's sheer size made the rescue operation challenging. It took the team nearly 30 minutes to safely transfer the monitor lizard into a transport carrier, a spokesperson of the NGO said.

An official at BTPS said, "We saw the monitor lizard moving from the powerhouse and into the toilet. It was quite shocking to see such a big reptile."

Kartick Satyanarayan, Co-founder and CEO of Wildlife SOS, said handling reptiles can be quite challenging especially, when they get stuck or trapped in such situations.

Wasim Akram, Deputy Director-Special Projects, Wildlife SOS, said, "Though non-venomous, monitor lizards are often believed to be venomous and aggressive. In reality, they are very shy and prefer to stay away from humans.

"However, it is most advisable to not approach a monitor lizard as they might react to being cornered or when provoked."

In another incident, a five-foot-long Black-headed Royal snake was found resting atop entry gate-C of the US Embassy here. The large reptile was carefully extricated by the Wildlife SOS rescue team and later released back into its natural habitat.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)