Chitwan, Nov. 26 -- When Bimala Bote of Ratnanagar Municipality in Chitwan stepped out of her mud house at around midnight on November 21, she went to check on some noise that sounded like an animal dragging something in the dark. What she did not expect was to come face-to-face with a full-grown mugger crocodile, just a few metres from where her three-year-old daughter and husband were sleeping.

"I had never seen a mugger crocodile this close in my life. I am from Ramechhap-there are no animals like this in our village," Bote recalled, describing how she froze when her phone's flashlight shone on the crocodile. The crocodile had reached her yard after crawling up from the Rapti river, which flows barely 300 metres from her home. Since t...