BUDONG-BUDONG, Indonesia, March 17, (AP): Nearly seven months after a crocodile attack almost took her life, Munirpa walked to the estuary outside her home with her husband and her children, ready to brave a reenactment. Munirpa, who like many Indonesians only uses one name, recounted how one early morning in August, she threw her household garbage into a creek about 50 meters (164 feet) away from her house, as she normally would.

She didn't see what was coming next. By the time she realized a crocodile had attacked her, the four-meter-long (13-foot) beast had already sunk its teeth into most of her body, sparing only her head. She fought hard, trying to jab its eyes. Her husband, hearing her screams, ran over and tried to pull her by the thigh out of the crocodile's jaws.

A tug-of-war ensued; the reptile whipped him with its tail. Fortunately, he saved Munirpa in time, eventually dragging her out of the crocodile's grip. People have long feared the ancient predators in the Central Mamuju district of Indonesia’s West Sulawesi, where the Budong-Budong River meets the sea. For Munirpa, 48, that fear turned into a brutal reality when she became one of nearly 180 recorded crocodile attack victims in Indonesia last year.

Residents like her are learning to coexist with the crocodiles, a legally protected species in Indonesia, as they balance conservation with looking out for their safety. But as attacks rise, several residents and experts have called for better government interventions to stop the problem from getting even worse. Following the attack, Munirpa was hospitalized for a month and has had two surgeries.

By February this year, her fear was still clearly visible, as were the scars on her legs and thighs. "I am so scared. I don’t want to go to the beach. Even to the back of the house, I don’t dare to go," said Munirpa. "I am traumatized. I asked my children not to go to the river, or to the backyard, or go fishing." In the villages surrounding the Budong-Budong River, like Munirpa's, crocodiles have become a daily topic of conversation.

Their presence has become so common that warning signs now mark the areas where they lurk, from the river mouth to the waterways which were once a popular swimming spot for children. In 2024, there were 179 crocodile attacks in Indonesia, the highest number of crocodile attacks in the world, with 92 fatalities, according to CrocAttack, an independent database. Social media videos showing crocodile appearances and attacks in Sulawesi and other regions in Indonesia are also on the rise.