14 minutes agoAuthor: Devanshu Tiwari
“It must have been 1 in the afternoon, it was sunny. Suddenly the mobile phone rang. The phone was from the forest department. Officer’s voice came as soon as he woke up, a snake has come out in a house in a dense colony near the airport in Transport Nagar. There is an elderly person, 3 children and their parents in the house. Everyone is worried. Have to reach immediately for snake rescue. When I reached the spot within 30 minutes, I saw that the snake was sitting under the cupboard in the corner of the room.
Its color and stripes showed that it was not an ordinary snake, but a poisonous ‘Russell-viper’. I immediately asked people to leave the room and then took out my snake rescue kit. First of all prepared a way to remove the snake. Placed a bag right in front of him without making any noise. Then, with the help of snake gouge, push it from behind. The snake suddenly became active. He ran towards the front where the bag was kept. As soon as the snake went inside, I immediately picked up the bag and closed it.
“Merely catching snakes does not rescue them. It is equally important to release him in a safe environment after catching him. After every rescue, our team releases the snakes in their safe spot with the help of forest department. Special care is taken that the information about the place where the snake is released should be kept secret.
Aditya Tiwari in Lucknow, the capital of Uttar Pradesh, has a group named ‘Paryavaranam’, which catches dangerous snakes and releases them in the forests every day. His team of 12 people works in 5 districts of UP. Who has rescued more than 6000 snakes so far. Aditya, who has been rescuing snakes in UP since 2012, has himself saved more than 3000 snakes from death.
Aditya rescuing a king cobra in a house in Lucknow.
How did it start?
Aditya tells the story of 2012. Says, “I was in class 9 when I rescued a snake in the school socks for the first time. This incident fueled my interest in snakes. I started searching for information about them from the internet to books. In the year 2012, I Saw a snake in the house. I remember it was sitting quietly and I went close to it to see it. Then a flying slipper came and hit me. That slipper belonged to my mother.”
“I took a picture of the snake and then googled about it. On searching, I came to know that the snake was a common wolf snake, which is non-venomous. After this incident, I became interested in the study of herpetology, that is, snakes. Today This has become my career.”
According to Aditya, after completing his graduation he worked in a real estate company in Lucknow. But due to his attachment to wildlife and snakes, he had to leave this field. After leaving the job, Aditya made his hobby his career. He formed an organization named ‘Paryavaranam’ and started a campaign to save snakes.
More than 300 snakes saved every year
Aditya says, “Our collaboration with the Forest Department started in the year 2013. Foresters started calling us for snake rescue. Slowly people themselves started calling us. In the first month, we used to get 3 to 4 calls. Then this series It kept increasing. Today, during monsoon time, we usually get 13 to 14 rescue calls every day. Talking about the whole year, on an average, we get 3 to 4 calls every day. Our team rescues more than 300 snakes every year. Rescues.
Aditya’s Paryavaranam Group works in 5 districts of UP (Lucknow, Prayagraj, Rae Bareli, Gonda and Hardoi). their helpline number is 8090667166. People contact through this number only. Aditya’s team has many volunteers from Lucknow, who also do jobs and rescue snakes when needed.
- Now let’s stop here. Before moving on to Aditya’s story, let us know about the most poisonous snakes found in India…
Said- Late night rescue is most difficult, phone remains on for 24 hours
Aditya says, “People make a daily routine that we will wake up in the morning and do this work, go to office. But it is not so with us. We have to be ready 24 hours. Even when we go to sleep, it seems that no call will come. It has happened many times that the whole night was spent in rescuing. That’s why snake rescuers sleep whenever they get some time during the day. Because the body will remain loose, then the risk will also double while catching the snake.
Regarding an incident on April 23, 2021, Aditya says, “I came to know that a cobra has entered a poultry farm in an area of Lucknow. When he reached there, people told that he was trapped in the trap of the enclosure for two days. When I reached to rescue, I saw that the snake was angry. Was hissing again and again. It was difficult to get the snake out of the net, so the team decided to first cut the net around it. After about 40 minutes of hard work, we were able to rescue him successfully. If we were careless that day, the cobra could have bitten us.”
His Paryavaranam team led by Aditya has rescued 6051 snakes across Uttar Pradesh. These include rescues of the ‘Big-4’ snakes, which account for 90% of snakebite deaths in India.
8700 deaths in one year due to snake bite in UP
According to the Center for Global Health Research Report 2021, on an average about 58 thousand people lose their lives due to snake bite every year in India. In this, there were 8700 deaths in UP alone, which is the highest in the country. In such a situation, the work of Aditya and his team becomes very important.
Aditya says, “While rescuing any venomous snake, the rescuer is the closest to death. A little carelessness can kill you. That’s why step-by-step care has to be taken. Sometimes it happens that the snake is behind the wardrobe and the room is too full of stuff. In such a situation, we first prepare the path to remove it. So that the snake can easily come towards us through this path. After clearing the area, we place our rescue bag at one end of that path.
Through such a rescue bag, a way is made to imprison the snake.
When a snake is scared, it runs towards the hole. We give him an artificial bill as a rescue bag to hide in. The snake moves comfortably in it and our work is done. Many times we have caught dangerous snakes like Cobra and Russell’s Viper without even touching them.
Despite the thousands of deaths due to snakebite in UP, Aditya considers snakes as friends of humans. He says that the main reason for snakebite deaths is that people are less aware of snakes. Whatever information is there is also wrong. While the snake is such a wildlife, which is closest to the human being. They hunt rats, due to which thousands of quintals of crops get wasted every year. Snakes also play a big role in preventing epidemics like plague.
Yogi government honored for the conservation of snakes
Aditya was honored by the Yogi government in the year 2018 due to the campaign to save more than 6000 snakes in 5 districts of UP. He was given the Wildlife Conservation Award by Deputy CM Keshav Prasad Maurya. In the same year, he was awarded a special award by Principal Secretary, Forest Kalpana Awasthi in Wildlife Week.
Aditya says, “The aim of our team is not only to save snakes, but also to make people aware about them. We are also going to villages and doing street plays on how to avoid snakes and treatment for snake bites. Due to this, the understanding of people towards wildlife is increasing at the grassroots level. Our slogan is – If a snake bites, the only treatment is the hospital, don’t waste time on exorcisms.
Deputy CM Keshav Prasad Maurya felicitating Aditya at the Human Wildlife Conflict Workshop in 2018.
Now…
You even came to know about Aditya’s campaign to save snakes. Next let us introduce you to some of his teammates…
“I left my teaching job because of my passion to catch snakes”
Devyani Singh Chauhan, 32, is the senior most member of the team. She has been saving snakes for the last 5 years. But starting this work was no less than a challenge for him. The whole family stood against him.
Recalling the initial days, Devyani says, “My family members did not like me to leave the teaching line and choose this job. Everyone gets scared on hearing the name of snake. But gradually they understood my work. Got mother’s support. Even father felt that the work his daughter is doing is not an ordinary work.” Devyani has saved more than 400 snakes.
Prachi and Devyani during the rescue.
20-year-old Prachi, UP’s youngest snake rescuer
The youngest member of the team, 20-year-old Prachi Tiwari, has also rescued more than 20 snakes in 2 years. It also includes 12 non-venomous snakes and a cobra. Apart from snake rescue, Prachi also makes people aware about the safety of snakes. He is one of the young snake rescuers of UP. His dream is to become an Indian Forest Service officer so that he can protect more and more wildlife.
Prachi says, “People kill snakes because of superstition. In the villages, instead of not treating their bites, they get exorcised. While snake bite should be treated immediately.
Like Devyani and Prachi, there are 12 other teammates, including 6 girls, who can rescue all kinds of snakes.
- Finally, know about the misinformation spread about snakes and their reality…
Thing 1: People have a misconception that snakes dance to the tune of the bean. It is not that snakes don’t have ears, they move just by looking at the bean.
Thing 2: People feel that python and anaconda eat humans. It’s not like that. Anaconda is 6.8 feet. He has the ability to eat only goat and dog.
Thing 3: Snakes lack mammary glands. Digestive cells that digest milk are not found in them. That’s why they can’t drink milk.
Also read these news related to UP…
1. I cremated 4000 unclaimed dead bodies, people used to laugh when I drove the hearse
Varsha Verma, a resident of UP’s Lucknow district, has been cremating unclaimed dead bodies since 2018. She has cremated more than 4000 dead bodies so far. Read the full news…
2.Shripal’s story has saved 1000 lives, worked even on the day of his son’s death
Shripal Nishad… This is the name of the person who saved 1011 people who wanted to die themselves. People used to jump into the Gomti river to commit suicide, but at the last moment Shripal reached to save them. Not only this, in the last 30 years, he has taken out more than 1500 dead bodies from the river and handed them over to the police. They do not get any salary for this work. Yes, sometimes a little bit of respect is definitely received. Read the full news…