Jimmy the Lizard

A few days after we shifted the rescued fish from drying out Talab to the Om Ashram water tanks, we noticed that one lizard – the Common Indian Monitor (Varanus bengalensis) - entered one of the tanks. He is a very beautiful animal and we named him Jimmy. Local people call these animals “Khada Go”. Go means a sort of Varanus lizard and Khada means that this particular type likes to hide and hunt in various ground and water holes. It is famous for very sharp nails which enable it to climb completely vertical surfaces. As per Indian legends it was used by ancient armies for conquering enemy’s forts and palaces. The soldiers would send these Monitor lizards to climb up the outer fort walls and on their tails they would fix ropes. Afterwards the soldiers climbed up while the lizards were holding onto the wall with their nails and incomparably strong limbs.

Soon we found out that Jimmy had come there with a certain purpose - he likes to eat our fish. But we like to protect the fish and also we wish that Jimmy is not overeating himself. Therefore we decided to catch and place him into another tank. We tried a lot to catch him by a cloth net inside the tank full of water but we were not successful. At the end we pumped most of the water out and then we could catch him using a special “reptile-scissors”. These animals have an interesting reflex - when you take a hold of their limb then they get completely stoned and one can safely and easily handle them. This is also the way how they keep on the vertical walls (as above). So we put Jimmy into a drum with water and drove him on a wheelbarrow to his new residence. Afterwards we refilled the tank with fresh sweet water for our fish.