Snake rescue turns a deathly trap

CHANDIGARH: Salim Khan ‘Saapwallah’ is on emergency call. At least two panic summons daily from the Greater Chandigarh region to rescue snakes that have snuggled into houses. Nikhil Sanger of the Wildlife Conservation Society has his routine coiled around the ultra-venomous Common kraits and Cobras flushed out by rains. These are high-risk passions to pursue and an unprecedented mortality rate underscored by the writhing deaths of three snake handlers in the last 10 months across India.

Sunil Ranade, a father of two little girls, was considered an ‘expert’, having handled 15,000 snakes. A Cobra bit him in his apartment in Mumbai while he was feeding it. Rajkishore Pani, labelled ‘Snake Man of Kendrapada’ (Orissa) after having rescued 4,000 reptiles, was bitten by a King Cobra. Pani had departed midway from his son’s marriage ceremony to rescue the serpent from a brick kiln. The latest mortality has been Sagar Panda, famous for his televised ‘Kiss the Cobra’ exhibitionism. Panda was killed while conducting an awareness show near the Balukhand-Konark wildlife sanctuary in Orissa. Panda had not taken the Cobra bite seriously.

‘Overconfidence’ is the cardinal sin when it comes to handling a creature as unpredictable as a snake. Capt (retd.) Suresh Sharma of the Panchkula-based Snake Cell has visited 2,500 homes and rescued 1,500 snakes. He says the more he learns about snakes, the more apprehensive he gets. “I am acutely aware of the complications of snake-bite. I try not to get carried away. Australian Steve Irwin, who died of a stingray bite, was playing to the galleries. The TV crews were egging him on to do foolishly dangerous things. Ranade had handled 1,5000 snakes but that experience can lull you into ‘overconfidence’ or foster the attitude that ‘I have seen it all’,” Capt Sharma told TOI.

India’s legendary reptile expert, Rom Whitaker, told TOI, “Machoism is the biggest killer, especially at night when snakes surface and men are drunk. Youths try to show off with snakes and are bitten. There is no need to catch snakes from their necks. There are established techniques using snake hooks and a long tube attached to a bag to capture snakes. Such techniques keep handlers and snakes safe. The Irula tribals are India’s best snake hunters but nine of them have died in the last 35 years. Most snake handlers have been bitten by venomous snakes and have survived. So, with the passage of time, they tend to start ignoring bites,” said Whitaker.

Snake envenomation research scholar and rescue expert, Dr Ranjan Maheshwari, is associate professor at the Rajasthan Technical University, Kota. He cites the case of Vikram Singh Kachhawa of Jaipur who rescued snakes and extracted venom for sale to the Haffkine Institute. “Kachhawa was drunk when he tried to extract venom. The snake killed him. A young girl from Bhopal was killed while conducting a snake-handling show on TV,” Dr Maheshwari told TOI.

“When a snake is seen, people run away from it. Snake rescuers head for the snake. The chances of a bite, thus, increase manifold for snake handlers. We normally grip the snake near the mouth and just behind the neck. A slightly bad grip can cause a bite as the reflexes of the snake are faster than ours,” said Dr Maheshwari. Adds Capt Sharma, “There is a tendency to do snake handling alone. You need to have a back-up team of two assistants to take care of you if bitten. A handler bitten by a snake must be immobilised to ease blood circulation and poison spread.”