Monday, July 25, 2011

Something About Snakes!


Yesterday, first time in my life I touched a snake, a cute little Cobra! I had seen snakes so close since my childhood but never dared to touch one. It’s not because of fear only but because perhaps I had a feeling that they were disgusting creatures.

Everything changed yesterday when we visited our German teacher, Dr. Latha Tampi at her residence. She is a lover of snakes and other animals and the Vice President of ZOOWATCH, an NGO working to improve the living conditions of the captive wildlife. She had arranged a demonstration on how to handle snakes. When the instructor released a cobra all turned a step back. He took it with his hands and a handling rod and told us to come close to him but nobody dared then all started shouting my name “Denny Go Denny Go…”. Hey you are bachelor just go man, Mahesh told. Yes I went to him and he said come behind him. I did so and then he handed over the rod to me. No!, I said. Nothing to fear just hold it, he told. So I did then he told me to hold the tail of the cobra and I had no other choice! It’s skin is soft and I observed it closely… Yes it’s really beautiful! And it seems to be so gentle! I held it for a minute or so then it turned toward me then I handed over it to Babu, the instructor. Then Joseph, Tony, Mahesh, Lajitha all came and handled the snake like experts.

Later Babu and Arjun(Instructors) released a Viper! But no one came close to them because Vipers are so unpredictable! fast and furious and really smart snakes. Then it’s the time for Trinket Snake! It was gentle but a bit shy too so all handled it with ease and caressed it.

We learned a few things about snakes and unlearned a lot because we already developed a lot of misconceptions about snakes since our childhood. Our society and even religions have contributed a lot to it. In fact snakes are not that much dangerous. Somewhere I read “Thousands of snakes are brutally killed every year because one man dies every year due to snake bite!” who is really more dangerous? Think. Yes snakes bites but only when they get hurt. When we accidentally put our legs on them they will react fast and may bite too. It is called dry bite, there wont be much venom in that. In most of the cases people die not because of the venom but because of fear and a heart attack eventually.

All we need is to erase such misconceptions from our mind. In fact snakes are wonderful, beautiful, gentle, mysterious and peace loving creatures on earth. Just touch it and love it. When you hold a snake don’t hold it on its neck, it will hurt its jaws and it can’t sawllow anything later and may die starving. So hold it on its tail and use a handling rod. And if it bites you don’t worry just go to the hospital, preferably a Medical College as soon as possible.

If you find snakes in Trivandrum locality you can contact Babu Palayam (Mob:9846662424,8893662424) or any other ZOOWATCH volunteers.They will come and rescue the snakes and release them into a safe place.

The above mentioned snakes were rescued from various parts of Trivandrum. They all safely released to wild forest later, where they can continue living peacefully…

Thanks to Latha ma’m. Thanks to Babu and Arjun.