NGO rescues 10 Indian rock pythons in two weeks

NAVI MUMBAI: Care of Nature, an Uran-based NGO, rescued as many as 10 Indian rock pythons from Panvel, Uran and the peripheral areas in the past two weeks. All the snakes were later released in the dense forest along the Mumbai-Goa highway.

Not only this, the NGO has rescued nearly 150 snakes and other animals from poachers so far in 2016.

“Snakes are cold-blooded creature and to maintain the temperature of the body they normally come to the shady places near housing societies, factories, public toilets among others during summer. They also enter the godowns searching for rats. Our people reach the spot as soon as they learn about such incidents,” said Raju Mumbaikar, president of the NGO.

According to Mumbaikar, most people have no idea about how to handle reptiles the right way. “For instance, people normally take all snakes to be poisonous and try to kill them at sight. Instead of killing them, if anyone calls us after spotting a snake, we will send our members to that place and they will rescue it,” he said.

In view of widespread killing of snakes and birds during monsoon, Mumbaikar started the NGO in 2009 which has rescued around 5,000 snakes, 400 birds and other animals so far. On Saturday, they rescued Indian rock python from Panvel and released it in the forest.

“We have 325 people and 20 branches across Navi Mumbai. Because of the association of these people, rescuing snakes and animals has become possible,” Mumbaikar said.

HT PHOTO Members of the NGO with the rescued snakes.