Pablo Escobar, the drug lord of Colombia, may have died long back in 1993 but the illegally smuggled hippos of his private zoo are on the loose in the whole area now.

For the Colombian government, the cost of maintaining Escobar's private zoo was too exorbitant to afford, so they transferred animals to zoos around the country. But all the hippopotamuses were not moved and they stayed in the same area. The warm climate of the place helped hippos thrive and multiplied in sizable numbers.

The problem is that the hippos are free to roam around so much so that they have been seen making their range as distant as 155 miles away from the Napoles estate. Also, it should be noted that hippos are dangerous animals as they are big and are ranked high among the most dangerous wild mammals in the world.

Several solutions were proposed by William Kremer of the BBC by relocation, captivity, castration, and turning them into a food source for the locals. "In some ways the problem, resembles the complex attitude Colombians had towards Pablo Escobar himself", says Kremer. So, solutions have to be checked onto wisely so that they may not further create new problems.

Taking about the figures, by 2011 there were at least 30 feral hippos roaming in the countryside. They are living in at least four lakes of the area and are moving into nearby rivers to a distance of about 155 miles away from Hacienda Napoles.

Fishermen who frequently visit the lakes and rivers are terrified on spotting these hippos. While no human death has been reported as a result of the huge animal, reports of damage to crops and cows have been on the rise.

The World Wildlife Fund has described the situation as a "time bomb" and measures have to be looked into to check the hippo rage.