an unentertained entertaining cobra
Saw this snake on two occasions [near Anand Rao circle].
It was in an aggressive mode the first time I saw it (29th July) -hissing/striking at passers-by. Somehow I felt I wanted to handle a snake, I was very close to it (as can be seen by the photo taken by mobile camera) but fear got the better of me to actually touch it – even though I knew the snake was rendered harmless. (Finally when we parted I somewhat regretted
the opportunity)
Later on I came across her and the snake again (12th August) and this time I confronted my
fear. I re-realised that as always fear was only in the speculation of
something hypothetical [snake would strike, poison me, memories of terrible
snakes attacking as seen on TV etc comes up, etc], but never in the current
moment of actual reality. Somehow I believed animals attack mainly when they
sense fear – and as my fear subsided, I slowly and gently picked it up.
It seemed to be least bothered 🙂
Found that it had lost its aggression (still I was quite wary). An
interesting observation was that its hood was just wrinkled loose skin on
its neck – had somehow assumed otherwise. Somewhere while talking my wife
happened to comment that it had been scientifically proved that snakes do
not/cannot drink milk.
Was conversing with the lady – enquiring about the well-being of the snake.
She said that it only threw up whatever milk she’d tried feeding it! My wife
told her that that snake only eat rats and insects and things like that but
I doubt if that lady really understood (or wanted to). I realised that the
snake was somewhat half dead. I asked how come it was more aggressive
earlier, she said that that time it had just been caught. I felt the snake
had been indirectly killed the moment it had been defanged, and now it was
just a matter of time 🙁
I tried to make her understand in different ways that she was actually
committing a criminal offence with this activity. No way she was going to be bothered. Survival
(and money) ruled her life. I later wondered whether I had inadvertently
encouraged her even more by taking these photos! After all it was the thrill
and fascination of a snake that she was selling.
In any case can anyone please let me know what’s the best
thing that can be done – is there anything that could’ve been done? Any
comments?
Had written the above around a week ago, and received several responses… and even a post in a colleague’s blog – can two wrongs make a right?
I did call the PFA and inform them and it seemed that they were already on this case!
Bellur had sent some useful info as well…
Karuna Animal Welfare Association of Karnataka
Kasturba Road, Bangalore-560 001
Telephone: +91-080- 22860205
Email : contact@karunaanimalwelfare.org
Animal Shelter
UAS Campus, Hebbal, Bangalore – 560 024,
Telephone: 23511329
Snake care Service:
KARUNA is providing snake care services with the cooperation of volunteers and attending to distress calls from the public for catching/ retrieving snakes. After catching the snakes, they are rehabilitated in forest areas.
for more, visit:
http://www.karunaanimalwelfare.org/Services.htm
ok, whats the contact number for PFA? I had it with me once, but’ve lost it. Can you put that across, too?
the snaps are too good. super clarity. the first snap showing the close-up of the snake hood looks as if it is a painted idol.
keep clicking. 🙂
Mr.Sharath Babu of the PFA @ 9880108801. He is the head of the Bangalore Chapter of PFA, and regularly (probably on a daily basis) does does a lot of animal welfare related work. – kln
Yesterday in a Kannada comedy serial Silly Lalli (E TV) there was a surprising scene – one of the characters wants a snake to scare someone, so he calls a snake handler. This snake handler gets a lot of live snakes. Then he gave the id for each of these snakes, and described it! The character in the story said that he wanted a defanged snake. The snake handler confirmed that defanging a snake is equivalent to killing it and he would never do that. Then the character says “ok just leave a non-poisonous snake there, when the lady gets scared I’ll come like a hero and throw it away!” And the snake handler says “you can’t just throw away a snake like that, it too has life, just leave it gently outside and I’ll pick it up after your job is done”.
Was really nice to see such sensitivity and information towards animals for a change 🙂
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My colleague and college friend Vishwa added that the character was played by “Snake Shyam” from Mysore and that there was a National Geographic episode on him.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snake_Shyam
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From the wiki…
Also see Outlook India: The Charm Of A Gutless Racquet
sanjay,
lovely to know about SNAKE SHYAM. god bless him for his service to serpents and for those 3 well worded one liners on his auto.
good to know that he was featured in a ‘comedy’ serial and that he gave ‘serious’ message to the audience.
thanks for the links.