In the two days that I followed Shuayb and Yatin Kalki on their snake rescue calls, a total of seven snakes from various locations across Bengaluru were rescued.

 

Of these, four were spectacled cobra and three were rat snakes. The days started early and stretched till late hours in the night. They involved strenuous and challenging situations where the rescuers took up various roles during a snake rescue – from the actual rescue of the snake to educating households on cleaning up spaces to avoid attracting snakes.

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Not all the rescues were of same nature. One of the rescues took over four hours and was physically daunting. It was a painstaking job of moving stacks of wood, pipes, and gunny bags of flour from a dark shed that had a large spectacled cobra trapped inside.

The rescuers had to be careful so as to not harm the already agitated snake, as well as not risk their own lives any further.

 

At a different rescue, Kalki had to deal with a man in an inebriated condition while trying to safely rescue a large spectacled cobra on the main road. The man kept tugging at Kalki’s hand while he was trying to bag the snake. A noisy crowd also started gathering around making it much more difficult to ensure everybody’s safety. Usually, controlling the crowd is very important and a tougher task than actually rescuing a snake.

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Story commissioned by Citizen Matters and originally published on Mongabay India
Also republished on NatureInFocus