The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : Slithering surprise visitors create a flutter at Chennai Trade Fair

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Feb 25, 2008
ePaper | Mobile/PDA Version

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Slithering surprise visitors create a flutter at Chennai Trade Fair

J. Malarvizhi

Four saw-scaled vipers and one rat snake were captured

— Photo: R. Ragu

Good catch: Members of the Irula Snake Catchers Co-operative Society capture a rat snake at the Chennai Trade Fair on Sunday.

CHENNAI: Surprise visitors of the reptilian variety created a flutter at the Chennai Trade Fair on Sunday. Four saw-scaled vipers and one rat snake were captured around noon in the open space beyond the parking area.

Workers had reported seeing snakes within the boundaries of the fair on Island Grounds to Tourism Department authorities.

They had said that they have frequently seen snakes in the area and some expressed concern that they could enter the space frequented by the public on a crowded weekend.

30,000 visitors

About 30,000 visitors had come to the Fair by 7 p.m. on Sunday evening, according to a Tourism Department official.

The Irula Snake Catchers Co-operative Society, which had a stall at the fair, was informed. Snake-catchers were summoned and the snakes found, said biologist Dalia Ghosh Dastidar, a trainee at the Society.

To be released shortly

They will shortly be released in a suitable location with the permission of the Forest Department.

Saw-scaled vipers are venomous but the rat snake (or the sarai pambu) is not.

The saw-scaled viper is one of the four snakes that the Society extracts venom from - the other three being the common cobra, common krait and Russell’s vipers. The Society supplies the venom to anti-snake-venom serum producers. It is not unusual to find these snakes near human habitations, she said.

Licences to catch snakes

The Society has previously been asked to capture snakes from industries around the city and at private companies on the Old Mahabalipuram Road. Some 275 of its 345 members have licences to catch snakes.

While their stall at the fair did not have any exhibits, the Society demonstrated venom extraction from cobras later in the evening. Several hundred saplings have been planted along the Cooum on the Island Grounds with the intention of creating a ‘Nature Walk’, a Tourism Department official said.

The location would have to foster bio-diversity and snakes are a part of the natural environment, the official added.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Tamil Nadu