The forest department is facing criticism not only from volunteers — who after appearing for a one-day test conducted in June 2014 to be certified as recognized as 'Snake rescuers' or Sarp Mitra are yet to get their identity cards — but also from renowned snake rescuers, who criticized the way these tests were conducted.
The one-day examination that included practical exams to test the skills of rescuing venomous as well as non-venomous snakes along with written and oral exams was held on June 21, 2014 by Bharat Joshi, a senior snake rescuer in collaboration with the CCF office of Thane Forest department.
A candidate, who appeared for the test, stated that he came to know about it a couple of days before the exam and a lot of snake rescuers were not even aware about such a test for certifying snake rescuers. "We were marked on handling snakes and after that it was only in January 2015 that we received a letter stating I had cleared the exam and was asked to submit a character certificate. Now, after submitting all the documents there has been no communication from the forest department," he said.
Meanwhile, another candidate, who too cleared the exam and has submitted all the documents, said that enquires with the forest department has only yielded weird replies. "First we were told that we will soon get our ID cards.
Later, after a few months, we were told several candidates are yet to submit their character certificate and unless all of them submit their documents, no one will get the ID card," he said.
However, several snake rescuers also questioned the tests and the manner it was conducted. Sunish Subramanian of PAWS Mumbai — who is opposing the whole examination conducted — shared that it was in 2009 that forest department gave ID cards of Sarp Mitra to several well known snake rescuers.
"Many were even found involved in illegal activities relating to snakes. Also the ID card was valid for one year but these were never renewed. Suddenly, a senior snake rescuer wakes up and decides to conduct tests with forest department to certify snake rescuers and a majority of the existing snake rescuers were not even informed about it," he said.
However, when contacted, Joshi — who was part of the team that conducted the tests — said that he has been following up with the forest department and the ID cards will be given in a few months time as the process of verification is going on. "I agree some people received the information about the tests late but we have learnt our lesson. This would not happen in the future. Certifying the snake rescuers is important as it will bring in a regulation and also proves that the person holding the card has proper knowledge about snakes as around 80 candidates had appeared out of which 25 percent failed to clear the test," said Joshi.
