The Crocodile Rehabilitation and Research Centre is a crocodile breeding and rearing park situated at Neyyar

Neyyar Dam

Neyyar dam is a gravity dam on the Neyyar River in Thiruvananthapuram district of Kerala, South India, located on the foot of the Western Ghats about 30 km from Thiruvananthapuram. It was established in 1958 and is a popular picnic spot...

, a popular tourist destination near the city of Thiruvananthapuram

Thiruvananthapuram

Thiruvananthapuram , formerly known as Trivandrum, is the capital of the Indian state of Kerala and the headquarters of the Thiruvananthapuram District. It is located on the west coast of India near the extreme south of the mainland...

 in Kerala

Kerala

or Keralam is an Indian state located on the Malabar coast of south-west India. It was created on 1 November 1956 by the States Reorganisation Act by combining various Malayalam speaking regions....

, India

India

India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

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Crocodile farm

A crocodile farm was started at the site in 1977, accommodating around 44 mugger crocodile

Mugger Crocodile

The mugger crocodile , also called the Indian, Indus, Persian, or marsh crocodile, is found throughout the Indian subcontinent and the surrounding countries...

s. The number of crocodiles varies as muggers are raised and released to the Neyyar river and lake near the dam site. It also accommodates other reptiles like snakes that are caught straying at the tribal villages nearby for short periods before they are released back into the sanctuary, most recently an Indian Python.

Steve Irwin Memorial

Established in May 2007, the Research Centre was initially named the Steve Irwin National Park, in honor of the late naturalist Steve Irwin

Steve Irwin

Stephen Robert "Steve" Irwin , nicknamed "The Crocodile Hunter", was an Australian television personality, wildlife expert, and conservationist. Irwin achieved worldwide fame from the television series The Crocodile Hunter, an internationally broadcast wildlife documentary series which he co-hosted...

, who was known as "The Crocodile Hunter". Irwin was killed by a stingray

Stingray

The stingrays are a group of rays, which are cartilaginous fishes related to sharks. They are classified in the suborder Myliobatoidei of the order Myliobatiformes, and consist of eight families: Hexatrygonidae , Plesiobatidae , Urolophidae , Urotrygonidae , Dasyatidae , Potamotrygonidae The...

 barb, while filming a documentary in 2006.
The crocodile park was the world's first-known memorial honoring the sportsman. A life-size plaque depicting Irwin was placed by the Kerala Forest Department at the gate of the park (though it was removed later). The Centre was inaugurated by Benoy Viswam

Benoy Viswam

Benoy Viswam was the Forest Minister in the Government of Kerala. He is a senior Communist Party of India leader and the president of the Kerala Tourism Development Corporation Employees' Federation....

, the Forest Minister in the Government of Kerala

Government of Kerala

The Government of Kerala is a democratically elected body that governs the State of Kerala, India for a period of 5 years. The state government is headed by the Governor of Kerala as the nominal head of state, with a democratically elected Chief Minister as real head of the executive. The state...

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Controversies

In 2009, Irwin's estate sent a legal cease-and-desist notice to the park, alleging violation of intellectual property rights and instructing them to cease using Irwin's name and image without the consent of the estate. This led to the removal of Irwin's name from the crocodile park. The picture engraved at the park's gate was also removed.

Crocodile Attacks

In 2001, mugger attacks were reported on tribals living near the dam site. Studies conducted by KFRI found these to be isolated incidents resulting from abnormal behaviour of a minority of the mugger population. A few weeks later an adult male crocodile accused of killing a tribal woman was trapped near the dam site.