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Snake goes up the ladder

The Bombay Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (BSPCA) rescued four snakes from Kurla and CST.

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Every year around Nagpanchami, animal welfare activists play an interesting game of snakes and ladders with snake charmers in the city. The good news, say activists, is that the snakes finally seem to be winning. On Sunday, the Bombay Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (BSPCA) rescued four snakes from Kurla and CST, said snake handler Sunil Ranade who works with the BSPCA.

Snake charmers use the reptiles to make money during the Hindu snake festival. “They earn up to Rs3,000 on Nagpanchami because people pay to watch cobras drink milk,” Ranade said.

Thanks to the raids conducted by NGOs like the BSPCA and the Plant and Animal Welfare Society (PAWS), the cruel practice of feeding milk to the snakes has considerably reduced, activists say. “In 1996-97, 670 snakes were seized in the raids. But last year (2005), we rescued just 30. The number of snake charmers coming into the city is gradually going down,” said Ranade.

Nilesh Bhanage, general secretary, PAWS-Thane said, “We have been conducting raids since 1998. Then, we seized around 40 snakes on Nagpanchami.” But last year, Bhanage’s team rescued one cobra. “On Sunday, we found no snakes in Bhandup, Mulund, Kanjur Marg and Vikhroli,” said Sunish Subramaniam of PAWS-Mumbai. “This is a good sign as it means snake charmers are afraid of the law,” explained Bhanage. The Black cobra, a species highly in demand on Nagpanchami, is usually caught from Rajasthan, Punjab and Haryana.

“The snake charmers keep the snakes hungry for a month so that they can drink the milk offered by the devotees; but, in fact, snakes cannot digest milk. They also break their venomous fangs which make the snakes unable to protect themselves. These snakes can’t be released back into the wild as they cannot hunt,” explained Bhanage.

Wildlife activists say the snakes are bought for Rs400. “In the city they fetch between Rs1,000 and Rs3,000,” said Ranade.

“After the festival, the snakes are killed and their skin sold a skin in good condition can fetch as much as Rs3,000.”

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