We had a snake rescue call while I was in the middle of ground-truthing the transect co-ordinates for the “All Animal Census 2011” in the Gudalur Forest Division. Given my passion for snakes, I dropped everything and went straight to the spot. Since it took me 15 mins to reach the site, the inevitable had happened, two small 1 foot long snakes had been killed, and burned as well.
I looked around and found the burned remains, and from what little was left I identified them as Striped Keelbacks (Amphiesma stolatum). They had killed two, but one had been saved by a friend and fellow wildlife enthusiast. Of all the snakes I’ve handled, the Striped Keelback is one of the most gentle snake I’ve come across, non-venomous and very non-aggressive.
While I’ve got used to snakes being killed before I get there, what gets me the most about this incident was the whole incident happened right in front of the gate where the Assistant Conservator of Forests (ACF) stayed, while he was at home. The protector of our forests and wildlife never initiated any action or tried to stop the youth who killed the poor creatures. While it was clear that he did not have any passion or even a mild interest in in wildlife, the least he could be expected to do is uphold the law when its being broken under his nose. He didn’t in any way attempt to dissuade the youth from killing the snakes.
When ordinary folk like us go out of our way to protect snakes and wildlife, people who are paid fat salaries to protect and conserve wildlife do nothing at all. Such complete lack of motivation or even ability to implement the basic laws by the very people entrusted to protect our forests is completely unacceptable!
I did report the incident to the DFO and he in turn warned him about such behaviour. Lets hope to see some change in at least this one person’s attitude, but how are we going to deal with the other such people in the forest department?
Rest In Peace my reptile friends.
Madhusudanan H.