Uganda: How I Escaped From Croc's Jaws


New Vision (Kampala)

10 May 2008
Posted to the web 12 May 2008

Kampala

Bearing the scars of his narrow escape, Bosco Nyanzi narrated to Gerald Tenywa how he was mauled by a crocodile at Wairaka landing site in Jinja District

WITH his left hand paralysed after a crocodile attack three years ago, 30-year-old Bosco Nyanzi knows that Wairaka landing site in Jinja District is a deadly place to be. He and two friends went out fishing in the night, not far from the landing site. As he cast his fishing nets he did not imagine that a deadly reptile was lurking in his shadow.


A crocodile suddenly grabbed his torso in its jaws and dragged him into the deep waters. But Nyanzi was not about to give in. Screaming, Nyanzi held onto the crocodile's jaws, trying to set himself free. His friends passed him an oar, which Nyanzi pushed into the crocodile's mouth to loosen its grip.

The crocodile relaxed a bit and Nyanzi held onto the boat and his friends pulled him out of the water. But he was far from safe as the reptile grabbed his hand. His colleagues pushed the oar harder into its mouth. It let go, perhaps to allow him to tell the tale.

"That day, I woke up early as usual and had breakfast with my wife and two children before going to the lake. The day was bright and sunny. As I bade my children goodbye, it did not cross my mind that I would escape death by a whisker," he says.

"At the lakeshore, I found my friends, Wilber Bwire and Deo Jjuuko. After we had waited for some time, the lake became calm and we climbed into the boat to go to the most popular fishing grounds. As I tried to pull the net, something held it back, and before I could figure out what it was, I was under attack.

"The crocodile wanted me for dinner. I have faced many obstacles in life, and I fear death with a passion, so I had to resist the jagged jaws of this man-eater. I was in shock and blacked out after fighting for my life in the lake.

"When I regained consciousness, I was lying in a room with bright light and strangers wearing long white coats were standing around me. I was initially confused. I thought I was dreaming, but I later put the whole picture of the events together," Nyanzi recalls.

He was briefly admitted at Wanyange health centre for first aid. however, the doctors could not handle his case because it was too complicated, so he was latter referred to Jinja main referral hospital.

Nyanzi says: "I felt a lot of pain in my back and legs and my head was too heavy to move. I knew that I had been badly hurt in the attack, but was grateful to be alive. The doctor told me not to worry because I was out of danger and that I would soon be out of the hospital. When Bwire came to see me the following day, I realised that I was very lucky to have survived the crocodile."

"His shoulder was in tatters and blood was gushing from a wound on his hand. The village path we walked while taking him to Wanyange had a trail of blood," recalls Bwire, adding: "It was a miracle that he got to hospital alive."

After staying at Jinja hospital for one week, Nyanzi was referred to St. Benedict Health Centre, which is run by Chinese in Wanyange, where he was treated for three months. After that, he went back to Kakira Trading Centre to stay with his uncle who was footing his medical bills.

Although the crocodile failed to eat Nyanzi, it left his left hand paralysed.

"I feel like I'm only half a man because my wife has abandoned me and one of our children. It is my uncle who is looking after us," Nyanzi says.

He has pleaded with his in-laws to persuade his wife to return, but the pleas have fallen on deaf ears.

In spite of his loss, Nyanzi lives like a hero because not many fishermen attacked by crocodiles have survived. His colleagues refer to him as Bosco "Gonya", the Luganda word for crocodile.

"This place has lost seven people to crocodiles," says Bwire who is also the LC1 chairperson of Wairaka landing site. "Those beasts are ruthless. They smashed the bones of one of the victims as if they were chewing popcorn," he says.

"We saw them patrolling the water the day after they attacked Nyanzi. Maybe they were still looking for him," says Mark Otieno, a fisherman.

Residents say the crocodiles that terrorise them could be five or six. They always pounce on fishermen in small boats called ponyokas.

"They make surprise attacks and in a blink of an eye the victim is gone," says Simon Oteng, another crocodile survivor.

Oteng was bathing in the lake when the crocodile grabbed his thigh.

"I screamed and my colleagues beat it with sticks before it dragged me into the lake," he says.

"We do not know where the reptiles come from, but it is possible that they reside in a huge swamp nearby," says Bwire.

Unlike Nyanzi and Oteng, who were lucky to survive the vicious attacks, David Nangoli perished mid-last year. His decomposing body was recovered in a nearby swamp. The crocodile had eaten his hands, one of his legs and stomach.

"I think it was still eating when we discovered the body in the swamp. It escaped," says Bwire.

Otieno, who used to work with the nearby Kakira sugar estate, is one of the pioneers of the settlement at the landing site and is furious about what he calls the Government's lukewarm response to the plight of the fishermen.

"The Government treats crocodiles as precious animals and protects them from being killed, but it never cares about us who even generate revenue," he says.

Otieno says the fishermen are accused of settling in the crocodile territory and that their complaints to the Fisheries Department have been ignored.

The issue of compensation is also hazy because it is not provided for in the Wildlife Act.

"Can you imagine orphans and victims of crocodile attacks have not got anything from the Government?" asks Otieno.

Uganda Wildlife Authority, which has the mandate to protect wild animals and people being attacked by animals like crocodiles has a capture team it has trained to handle what it calls "problem crocodiles". They have elocated the crocodile that mauled 100 people in Bugiri District to Buwama crocodile farm on Masaka Road.

Facts about the Nile Crocodile

The Nile crocodile has a somewhat deserved reputation as a vicious man-eater. In case its habitat is close to human settlement, run-ins are frequent, and its indiscriminate diet means a villager washing clothes by a river bank may look just as tasty as a migrating wildebeest.

Adults can be as long as six meters and can weigh up to 730kg, but the average is five meters long and 225kg in weight.

They live throughout sub-Saharan Africa, the Nile Basin and Madagascar in rivers, freshwater marches, and mangrove swamps.

The diet of the Nile crocodile is mainly fish, but it will attack almost anything unfortunate enough to cross its path, including zebras and small hippos.

It can eat up to half its body weight at a feeding, but can spend six months without eating.

One unusual character of this fearsome predator is its caring nature as a parent. Where most reptiles lay their eggs and move on, father crocodile and mother crocodile ferociously guard their nests until the eggs hatch, and will often roll their eggs gently in their mouths to help hatching babies to emerge.

Hunted close to extinction in the 1940s through the 1960s, local and international organisation have helped them rebound in most areas. In some regions, though pollution, hunting, and habitat loss severely depleted their numbers.

Avoid those crocodile attacks

Children should not be allowed to collect water from the lake.

Fishermen should not go out fishing unaccompanied.

Fishermen should use strong boats for fishing and not the small canoes nicknamed ponyokas and "parachutes".

Fishermen should have signals to warn each other of the presence of crocodiles.


Avoid overfishing because this contributes to depletion of fish and the starved crocodiles will prey on the fishermen.

Services like piped water should be provided to settlements at the landing sites to minimise interaction between humans and the man-eaters.

People should follow land use plans when establishing settlements and also avoid living close to crocodile infested areas.