Mudit Dandwate, the 29-year-old Bengaluru-based entrepreneur who survived a crocodile attack at Thattekere lake on Sunday, says that he had to "voluntarily snap off his arm" to save his life.
Dandwate, who is glad to be alive, doesn't seem to back down after the attack. Now, he has his mind set on designing a prosthetic arm for himself. A composed Mudit who recalled the series of events happened that day. He and his friend along with their two dogs had gone for a long drive from Indiranagar at 6.30am. Going on long drives was a routine thing for Mudit.
Mudit recalls the attack
They had parked the car about 60m away from the lake and left for the temple.
He recalls that a part of the lake was fenced and the gate was open. When the dogs started running towards the open gate, he got worried and started running after them. When he entered the lake, within seconds a crocodile grabbed his arm and pulled him underwater. The moment he saw the croc, he froze but had to fight back to save himself.
"My arm was in its jaws. I felt my arm below elbow dangle. Obviously, under water, I could not be mightier than the crocodile. I had to vent out my anger. I punched it a couple of times. I realised that most of my arm was cut. The only way to save myself was to snap off the remaining part myself. I did just that," Mudit said TNIE.
Apart from the fact that he is alive, he is more than happy that his dogs are alive too, that had been his priority then. He remembered seeing warning boards by the lake but said that they were illegible.
After he freed himself from the croc, he swam back to safety, wrapped his arm with his shirt to control the bleeding. By then, locals came by but he couldn't communicate as they did not understand English. Luckily, around that time, forest officials were driving by and came to his rescue. He was then taken to Hosmat hospital.
Designing an arm
Mudit Dandwate said - "I will go superhuman now. I will design a prosthetic arm for myself which can probably do much more than a normal hand. I started planning about the design while I was in the ICU. It will materialise soon with the help of other co-founders of the startup," he said TNIE.
