According to Maranko, they have been seeing a major rise in such crimes, where snakes are kept illegally and even trapped as well as exchanged amongst people for photography and even trade.
In an incident that served as a wake-up call for the Wildlife Crime Control Bureau (WCCB), two people were booked last week for illegal possession of snakes as well as offering the reptiles for photo shoots at a nominal fee.
The incident has stirred the WCCB into action; it is a statutory body established under the Ministry of Environment Forests and Climate Change to combat organised wildlife crime in the country, and to not only look at such cases seriously, but also initiate a drive to ensure that offenders and errant snake rescuers are brought to task.
Regional deputy director of WCCB M Maranko said, "We had been alerted about such people using social media to give snakes for photo shoots, hence, we set a trap in which our representatives posed as customers. These two people were caught with two snakes — a cobra, which is listed under schedule II, and a common sand boa under schedule IV." He added that both the accused were handed over to the Thane anti-poaching unit of the forest department.
According to Maranko, they have been seeing a major rise in such crimes, where snakes are kept illegally and even trapped as well as exchanged amongst people for photography and even trade. "We have decided to take this extremely seriously and will begin a stringent drive against such cases; we are sure that once more people are booked, it will serve as a deterrent," he said.
Meanwhile, officials from the Thane forest department said the snakes were seized. "We are carrying out an investigation in the case and action will be taken depending on the information we gather from the accused who are minors," said the official.
Secretary for PAWS-Mumbai Sunish Subramanian claimed that such cases were extremely serious in nature and needed to be tackled intelligently by tracking down the people who pass on the snakes to different people, as well as those who trade these snakes for venom and as pets.
"Youngsters are mostly used for carrying out this trade. Also, there is a lot of fascination amongst people these days, who want to hold a snake, photograph it in different poses as well as get photographed with the snake, and it is surprising that there are people openly offering snakes for such purposes on social media."
Well-known naturalist and snake expert Kedar Bhide, who founded the Reptile Rescue and Study Centre, said it was high time people posing with snakes or trapping them, began fearing the forest department and WCCB. "If more such cases are reported, it will definitely create fear, but the forest department and WCCB will have to come down harder. Also, in cases where minors or first-time offenders are booked, they can be let off with a stern warning and even sensitisation, depending on the decision taken by the investigating officer," said Bhide.
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