Dec

Saving the snakes of Jaipur

Jaipur, September 15, 2014: Snake conservation and rescue has gotten a boost in the city with the local NGO Raksha striving to protect the reptiles, with assistance from Wildlife Trust of India’s Rapid Action Project (WTI RAP) supported by Charities Aid Foundation-India (CAF-India) and Pradeep Mocherla.

Releasing a rescued cobra. Photo: Raksha/WTI

Often persecuted, snakes are one of the most misunderstood creatures from time immemorial. “One of the main reasons people fear snakes is because there is an intrinsic belief that all snakes are venomous and their bite is automatically fatal. People need to be educated that majority of the snakes do not possess venom. Identification of venomous and non-venomous snakes is extremely crucial,” says Radhika Bhagat, Head of WTI’s Wild Aid division.

Spreading awareness amongst school children. Photo: Raksha/WTI

This being one of the main purposes in mind, the Raksha team has been carrying out a series of awareness workshops across the city especially in schools. Here the main focus was identification of the snake species in the region, what to do when one see a snake, dispel the myths that revolve around snakes and making them aware of all the helpline numbers in case of an emergency. Posters on the same were distributed as well. They also held demonstration with dummy snakes on the correct and safe techniques which are followed by rescuers when extricating a snake.

“A number of deaths from the bite of a venomous snake happen because of lack of first-aid or when it is incorrectly administered. This is why a huge part of the workshop was teaching the student scouts the correct methods of first-aid through demonstrations and practical exercises,” remarked Joy Gardner, Member Secretary of Raksha.

Demonstrating the correct way to rescue a snake with a dummy. Photo: Raksha/WTI

With the peak season of human-snake conflict being July-November, the project was initiated in July 2014 and by August alone the Raksha team, who had been provided with 10 snake rescue kits under the RAP, had rescued over 90 reptiles- 43 spectacled cobras, 15 glossy bellied racers, seven royal snakes, one trinket, 11 monitor lizards. A mongoose was also rescued by the team. While they had been doing rescues from a few areas of Jaipur for over 12 years, with the help of the RAP they were able to use the resources and expand their operations to the outskirts of the city as well. All rescued snakes were released in their natural habitat.

The value of snakes in the ecosystem cannot be denied as they play a huge role in helping maintain the balance especially by predating on smaller animals like rodents, facilitating their population control. Acknowledging the growing problem of human-snake conflict, RAPs supporting the conservation of snakes have been carried out previously as well. (Go here to read about a similar RAP carried out in the state of Chhattisgarh earlier this year)