Friday, August 29, 2008

Snakes come crawling out of AIR station campus

29 Aug 2008, 0756 hrs IST, K Praveen Kumar,TNN

CHENNAI: All through Wednesday and Thursday, officials of the Velachery Forest Range camped on the All India Radio station campus in Thirumullaivoyal near Avadi on a snakecatching mission. At the end of the day, the officials, accompanied by three snakecatchers , had in their basket as many as nine adult snakes, 35 young ones and a few fertilised eggs. The exercise was undertaken following repeated calls of snakes being spotted on the AIR station campus that also houses the employees' quarters. "AIR station officials had written to us regarding the snake problem. They told us that the reptiles were found all over the campus. Many had crept into bedrooms and toilets. So we had sent a team to the place," Sathyamurthy, forest range officer, Velachery, told The Times Of India. "We found it very difficult to walk outside, especially at night. Our children could not play outside. Snakes were found in bushes as well as in open places. Many of us were shocked, on many occasions, to see poisonous snakes in the corners of our bedrooms and toilets. The number of snakes seems to have gone up in recent times. Almost all of us have spotted one or two at some point of time," Ratna, a resident said. The team from the forest range, in all, captured four adult cobras, 35 young cobras and 16 cobra eggs from the campus. The officials also captured a rat snake, a wolf snake and a green snake - all nonpoisonous ones. The residents sighed in relief when they saw the catch. "If we had not attended to their call now, the number of snakes in the campus would have tripled. There were 35 young cobras and more eggs to hatch. The reptiles do not have any other place nearby to go," said one of the snakecatchers . There is a lot of greenery on the AIR station campus, making it an ideal breeding ground for snakes. The captured snakes were taken to the Velachery Animal Rescue Centre and would be released into the wild later. "We have also brought the snake eggs to the rescue centre . They will be hatched here after which we will release them into the wild. We have well-designed hatching pits for this," Sathyamurthy said. The forest department officials now have to travel hundreds of kilometres to release these snakes. The fast-paced urbanisation has resulted in the loss of habitat for several reptile species. The captured snakes have to be taken to remote forest areas in the state and released.

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