Torture, killing of snakes for money must stop, say activists

Although, Nagpanchmi is the day when the snake god is worshiped, it is also a fact that snakes are tortured and subjected to brutalities to bring the reptile to our doorsteps.

Volunteers of Wild Animals and Snakes Protection Society have decided to keep a vigil on such snake charmers. The members of the Society will take the snakes they have caught in their custody if they  find that the charmers are torturing them.

The members of the Society, on the eve of Nagpanchami, elaborated on how the mouths of snakes are tied, their backbone is broken and they are kept hungry and thirsty for several days in order to discipline them for their purpose.

Vice secretary of the society Ganesh Kanade said that the Society members had caught as many as 250 snakes from around the city on last Nagpanchami.

“All of them had suffered injuries, with over 80 per cent of them seriously wounded. The charmer doesn’t realise that are causing severe internal injuries to a snake while they are tying their mouth. A snake is mentally disturbed after such torture and cannot eat,” he said. 

He said milk was actually poisonous for snakes and the kumkum put by women on a snake blinds it. Kande informed that snake charmers later kill snakes and smuggle the skin for lakhs of rupees.

Kande said, “If we find such snakes we take them into their custody and rehabilitate them.”
The volunteers of the Society also appealed to the citizens to provide them information about people involved in such cruelties.

Appeal to save reptiles
Snakes Protection Society has appealed to the citizens to inform about snake charmers operating in the city to Somnath Khadke on 860591178 or Ganesh Kanade on 9890818121.