The crime of snakes being illegally exchanged by snake rescuers between two states came to light after the arrest of Chandrabhan Naik from Bargad, Odisha
In a first of its kind case in Maharashtra, while a group of snake rescuers have been booked for illegally procuring a 10.6 feet long King Cobra (not found in Maharashtra) from Orissa in exchange for other snakes, another set of snake rescuers and experts took it upon themselves to not only find this 'missing' snake but also nursed it back to good health in Thane for 10 days and ensured its safe transportation for its release back in Orissa.
The crime of snakes being illegally exchanged by snake rescuers between two states came to light after the arrest of Chandrabhan Naik from Bargad, Odisha who was caught by Railway Protection Force (RPF) at Ahmednagar station on January 13 after six live snakes and a green iguana were found in his bag.
The arrest opened a can of worms as the forest department found several images of snake rescuers handling a King Cobra in Naik's camera and laptop. The officials suspected that a King Cobra was brought in the state.
Further interrogation by forest officials led to arrest of Avinash Shah (Sangamner), Sopan Thorat (Sangamner), Akshay Ghodke(Barshi) and Jagdish Rewatkar (Chandrapur), however, two persons- Amar Godambe who is now the main accused along with Altaf Shaikh both from Pune went absconding.
"They admitted that six of them had brought a King Cobra in November 2018 from Chandrabhan during their visit to Odisha by exchanging it for Malabar pit viper, Hump-nosed pit viper and Albino common krait that they had carried from Maharashtra,"said Range Forest Officer (RFO) Sunil Thete who informed that this case has shocked everyone by exposing such exchange by snake rescuers themselves.
The final breakthrough:
Investigations also revealed that the King Cobra was kept at Amar's house for almost two months and during this time several snake rescuers visited his house and free handled the snake and even clicked photos with it.
As per RFO Thete, just a day before the arrest of Chandrabhan, Amar had sent the Cobra to Avinash Shah at Sangamner who in turn along with Sopan handed it to Mumbai based snake rescuer Tanmay Kolte on January 15 stating that it was an exotic snake and could be sold to pet shop and even asked for their commission.
However, on his return to Mumbai, Kolte found it to be an Indian King Cobra and sensing trouble after vague replies from the duo he alerted Aditya Patil from Wildlife Welfare Association (WWA) about possessing the snake as he found out that Patil was working on this case with the forest department.
"I asked Kolte to immediately handover the snake to Ahmednagar forest office and also informed the department. On January 19 Kolte handed the snake to the department," said Patil.
Back to where it belonged:
Senior snake rescuers and experts in the field like Herpatologist Kedar Bhide, Ganesh Mehendale from Organisation for Wild Life Studies (OWLS) and others who were working closely with the forest department and WAA suggested that the snake should be sent back to Odisha for release in its natural habitat.
The WAA team in coordination with Thane territorial forest department got the custody of the snake on January 21 and along with expert Vets, and under the guidance of seniors like Bhide and Mehendale took care of it for 10 days. The snake was finally sent by air cargo to Bhubaneswar along with Assistant Conservator of Forest (ACF) Ramesh Devkhile on January 31 where the team along with the Odisha forest department will release it back in its habitat.
Meanwhile, while the four arrested accused are out on bail, as per forest officials Godambe has already applied for anticipatory bail, which the forest department is planning to oppose in the court at the moment.
ABOUT THE KING
- The King Cobra is known as the world’s longest venomous snake found in forests of India and can grow to a length of 12 to even 18 feet
- 11 large scales on the crown of its head that is a feature distinguishing it is also a reason for it being called the King
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