Snake handling training for Tamil Nadu forest officials

Dharmapuri, Dec 23 (ANI): Forest authorities in Tamil Nadu's Dharmapuri District conducted a training programme to educate and train staff on how to handle snakes and to make them aware about importance of maintaining the ecological balance.

A specialist from Nilgiri Wildlife Environmental Association, Sadiq Ali trained the Dharampuri forest officials in handling the snakes and educated them about the poisonous and non-poisonous varieties of the reptiles commonly found in the forests of Tamil Nadu.

A district forest officer, Senthilkumar said that through the training programme they learnt the technique of capturing snakes without hurting it and also to give first aid to patients bitten by the reptiles.

"It is a common incident that snakes enter residential areas and usually what people used to do is kill the snakes but this is an offence under wildlife protection act so what we have done is like today we have arranged for a training of our forest personnel with Mr. Sadiq who is also from Nilgiri Wildlife and Environment Association. He has conducted a training regarding handling of snakes," said Senthilkumar.

As per reports, the official figure of deaths due to snakebite in the country is 2,000 per year.

Ali said although many varieties of snakes were found in the region and the officials were incompetent to handle and capture the reptiles. However, the training programme proved to be extremely useful for the officials as they learnt the new techniques to tame the reptile.

"I have been going all over Tamil Nadu doing awareness about snakes and training the forest department to handle snakes in a safe method and I have found a new device to handle snakes and with the same device I train the forest department. Today I have to Dharampuri to train the Dharampuri forest division as there is no rescuers in Dharampuri and from today they will start the rescue work," he said.

India is home to around thirteen poisonous varieties of snakes and the most dangerous among them are the cobra, the Russel's viper, the saw-scaled viper, the krait and the hump-nosed pit viper.

According to the reports, there has been a surge in illegal snake hunting in India and neighbouring countries, resulting in the depletion of this endangered species. (ANI)