The Monitor lizard (ghorpade) is widely mentioned in Maratha history, mythology and folklore.  Kama Singh, a famous Maratha warrior, breached the walls of the Kelna fort by tying a rope to a monitor lizard, allowing it to scale the wall and climbing the rope after the lizard had tightly secured itself.

After this rare feat, Karna Singh’s tribe was known as Ghorpade (pronounced ghorpaday), (the marathi name for Bengal Monitor Lizard) and every soldier in the army was trained in this strategy. 

It is unfortunate that criminals subsequently started misusing the lizards to climb the walls of houses they were burgling.