Punjab’s snake wrangler is a computer graduate

For those afflicted by ophidiophobia (fear of snakes) in Punjab,this computer applications graduate is a welcome sight. Nikhil Sanger — who also runs the NGO,Wild Life Conservation Society,in Nawanshahr – rescues snakes that are unwelcome and has been getting calls from across state for his services; he has found the reptiles at the oddest of places from scooters and cars to sofas and wells.

“I started rescuing snakes from homes and other places around seven years back and so far I have rescued around 5,500 of the reptiles including the most venomous ones,” he says. Sanger has won state awards thrice for his work. He,however,literally stumbled onto his passion. Sanger says he loved painting in his younger days and hence would venture into forests to find inspiration for his canvas. It was here that he began to notice the reptiles. “I was not scared of snakes owing to my visits to the jungle and I started rescuing them as a hobby but now it is my full time job which I do in scientific manner,” he says.

Sanger has also found an able ally. His wife Sonika Maan Singh,an MA in sculpture and doing her Phd,lends her hand in the rescue operations at times.

Story continues below this ad

The snake handler is kept busy at most times. On Monday he rescued a snake from the Government Middle School at Saloh in Nawanshahr district and on Tuesday he was busy rescuing a reptile at Nayyar colony in Nawanshahr. He says it takes him anything between a few minutes to even three days to rescue a snake. “Once I had to dismantle a portion of a house to rescue a snake that had entered through cracks on the roof,” he said. Once he rescues them,he releases them in the forest.

Sanger urges people to be cautious during the monsoon. “In the rainy season prey animals like insects and rats come out in the open causing the snakes to follow them which results in more human encounters,” he says.