Karnataka: Wildlife conservationist urges forest department to issue authorisation certificates to snake rescuers

“Chief Wildlife Warden or the authorised officer can authorise persons within the department and mainly outside the department… who are interested and have necessary skills to capture and release the snakes in their natural habitat. This could be done by giving an Authorization Certificate by Chief Wildlife Warden or an officer authorized by him to such snake handlers. Further, if accidental insurance is provided to these snake handlers, it would surely motivate them,” the letter read.

Guidelines in this regard have already been issued by the forest departments of Kerala, Maharashtra and Gujarat, where only certified snake handlers are allowed to capture and release snakes into the wild.

“A similar mechanism if put in place in Karnataka as well would be highly useful and safe for the public, snakes, forest department and also for snake handlers,” Kulkarni said.

He explained that owing to ignorance and lack of information, snakes create much fear among the general population.

“In such a scenario, any individual who knows how to handle a snake becomes popular. Often, this status becomes a hurdle in the way of taking strict action against unethical handlers and rescuers, and enforcing the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972. It is also true that in many instances, the forest department depends on local rescuers to address snake-human conflict situations. This is because internal expertise within the department is not available at all places every time, which makes on-field enforcement difficult at the ground level. Many a time, a serious disconnect has been noticed between the community of snake rescuers and forest staff. Hence, under these circumstances, it is necessary that the Karnataka Forest Department issues guidelines to streamline and bring in more accountability in the process of rescue of snakes in human-dominated areas and release them in their natural habitat,” Kulkarni said in the letter.

Offering his insight to the forest department, the conservationist said that, though, most of the snake handlers are skilled and are known to act in a responsible manner by understanding the behaviour of the snakes, actions of some have raised allegations of unscientific approaches, such as not taking necessary protective precautions, doing stunts and displaying snakes in public, thereby causing unwanted stress to the animal, and posing risk to their own and others’ lives.

Karnataka officially reported 5,281 cases of snakebite between 1999 and 2019.

All venomous and non-venomous snake species found in India are listed in different Schedules of Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972 and hunting or attempting to hunt any such species is an offence.