Tuesday was an ordinary day for two snake-catchers from Vasai. A range forest officer called and asked them to take away a Russell’s viper he had found resting under the boulders behind his office.
However, what the two men found was that the 5-foot-long snake was heavily pregnant. They rescued the reptile and kept it in an unused telephone booth, where she gave birth to 45 babies on Thursday.
The two snake catchers, Hemant Pawar and Vishal Kolekar, narrated the incident.
“We got a call from the range forest officer in Vasai east, asking us to rescue a Russell’s viper resting on the boulders behind the range forest office. It was only after we took a closer look did we realise that she was pregnant. We decided it would not be wise to release her into the forest,” said Pawar.
He added, “We kept her in an unused telephone booth near our house, and on Thursday, she gave birth to 45 babies. We informed the fire brigade officials, who took the mother and her babies and released them at Tungareshwar wildlife sanctuary at Vasai.”
Kolekar added that the young ones are at least 20 times more poisonous than adult Russell’s vipers. The adults do not harm anyone unless provoked.
There is no phenomena of rearing babies among snakes. Once born, the babies are independent. “All the babies will now have to survive on their own in the jungle and maybe 20 of them will survive, while others might die,” said Kolekar.
