5-Year-Old Girl Mauled to Death by Crocodile

A five-year-old girl was killed by a saltwater crocodile while bathing with her parents in Bukit Layang Village, Bangka Regency, Indonesia. The attack occurred around 9 a.m. Saturday, January 11, 2025, when the child, identified by rescuers as Caca (pronounced “Cha-cha”), waded into the water at an abandoned tin-ore mining pond to join her parents for a bath.

“The victim was snatched by a crocodile,” said I Made Oka Astawa, head of the provincial search and rescue agency based in Pangkalpinang. 

The saltwater crocodile lunged at the child, dragging her into the murky depths as her parents desperately tried to save her. An extensive search operation was immediately launched, involving local police, rescue volunteers, villagers, the army, and the Bangka Belitung search and rescue agency.

Hours later, the crocodile was caught and brought ashore. Caca’s body was recovered early Sunday morning, with her skull crushed by the beast’s jaws. Her remains were turned over to her family for burial.

The pond where the attack occurred is a remnant of tin-ore mining, which has become a typical habitat for crocodiles in the Bangka-Belitung region. The area’s saltwater crocodiles can grow up to 22 feet long and weigh more than 2,200 pounds, making them the world’s largest reptiles.

Indonesia has recorded the highest number of saltwater crocodile attacks globally, with over 1,000 attacks documented in the past decade. Since 2014, at least 478 people have been killed and 531 injured in crocodile attacks across the country, though experts believe these figures are significantly underestimated due to unreported cases in remote areas.

The Bangka-Belitung islands, located off the coast of Sumatra, have become particularly dangerous due to the proliferation of illegal tin mines. Environmental experts attribute the surge in attacks to the destruction of natural crocodile habitats by these mining operations, forcing the predators into human-populated areas in search of food.

Despite crocodiles being a protected species in Indonesia, local traditions often result in the animals being killed following attacks rather than being handed over to conservation officials. This practice has complicated efforts to manage the crocodile population and prevent human-wildlife conflicts.

The landscape across Bangka-Belitung is now littered with craters from tin mining operations, which fill with rainwater and become breeding grounds for the growing crocodile population. Conservation groups in Indonesia work to rescue and rehabilitate affected wildlife, but limited resources and the scale of the problem make this a challenging task.

Recent attacks in the region highlight the ongoing danger. In 2020, a six-year-old boy was killed by a crocodile while swimming off Buru Island in Maluku province, with the predator later shot dead by marine police. That same year, a Sulawesi scientist was mauled after falling into her pet crocodile’s enclosure, while a fisherman in Kalimantan lost an arm to a crocodile attack.

Even tourists have not been spared from these attacks. In 2016, a Russian visitor was killed by a crocodile in the Raja Ampat Islands, a globally renowned diving destination. 

The regional government has attempted to regulate the tin mining industry, but illegal operations continue to degrade the environment and displace wildlife. The situation has become so severe that authorities in Bangka-Belitung are actively warning residents to avoid all water-filled mining pits in the region.

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