Schoolchildren of Dholgarwadi village in Maharashtra (close to Karnataka border), stunned the visitors on Monday by handling more than 17 species of snakes and explaining their role in the eco-system.
The “snake-friendly” village holds significance, especially during Nagapanchami, as its residents do not harm the reptiles. This year Dholgarwadi villagers, especially schoolchildren, played with more than 17 species of snakes, both poisonous and non-poisonous, in front of the visitors who had come from Karnataka, Maharashtra and Goa to observe the snake festival.
The poisonous snakes that were shown to the visitors included cobra, common krait, Russell’s viper and bamboo pit viper, and non-poisonous snakes comprised green snakes, python, rat snake and water snake.
Visitors were amazed to watch students of Mama Saheb Lad Vidhyalaya (MSLV) handling snakes very efficiently without fear. They showed the live snakes to the crowd, explained their role in the eco-system, and spoke in depth about the distinct characteristics of each species. Each species of snakes were put in specially constructed tanks.
MSLV chairman Baburao O Takkekar told Express that all the snakes kept on the institute premises were rescued from human habitats, and not caught from forests.
Takkekar said all the snakes would soon be released into the forest areas in the presence of Forest Department officials. Stating that the institute maintained complete records of the snakes it found, he said the information was given to the Forest Department.
Takkekar said his aim of setting up MSLV and conducting such programmes was to remove the fear of snakes and any superstitious beliefs associated with them. The fear and superstition often made people kill snakes, whenever they spotted them, he added.
As MSLV had succeeded in creating awareness in Dholgarwadi, it would one day make the rest of the world know the importance of snakes and stop their killing, Takkekar added.
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