Tears As Hundreds Of People Attend Funeral Of Revered Crocodile (Photos)

After many days without sustenance, the beloved reptile was discovered lying dead in the lake early Monday.

A bizarre Indian funeral drew hundreds of visitors.

They attended the emotional burial of a heavenly crocodile that lived for decades on a vegetarian diet in a Hindu temple in India.

Monday’s funeral.

The temple secretary Ramachandran Bhat claimed Babia guarded Kerala’s famed Sri Ananthapadmanabha Swamy temple for about 80 years in the lake

After many days without sustenance, the beloved reptile was discovered lying dead in the lake early Monday.

Bhat told AFP that a single “divine” crocodile had defended the 3,000-year-old Kasaragod Vishnu shrine for millennia.

Bhat believed Babia emerged in the lake when the British troops slaughtered the last heavenly crocodile in 1940.

“The water is linked to caverns underground,” Bhat claimed.

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Babia was sacred because it was said to have never harmed another animal or person, even children who were carried to the lake’s edge to touch the lizard for blessings.

Many thought it lived on ‘prasadam’, precious rice and jaggery consecrated and sanctified by temple priests, but Bhat stated he did not “since there are fish in the lake”.

The scaly body was decorated with flowers and consecrated before being brought past the mourners on a coconut leaf bed on a litter and buried in the temple courtyard.

“The God’s own crocodile” has found redemption, tweeted India’s agricultural and farmers’ welfare minister Shobha Karandlaje, confirming its meat-free diet.

See the photos below;