Forest department officials and wildlife lovers were overjoyed when 22 python eggs found from forest hatched successfully through artificial incubation in Odisha’s Rairakhol area on Sunday.
On May 24 last, villagers of Dehurisahi, a forest fringe village, found that a python had laid 28 eggs close to the village boundary. Fearing that python hatchlings could pose threat to their lives and domestic animals, the villagers took the python and eggs 18 km away from the place.
On hearing the news, Subhendu Mallick, member of Snake Helpline and an honorary wildlife warden of Khurda, with the help of forest department officials had gone to the place where eggs and snake were kept. They found that the snake was missing. They took possession of the eggs and prepared favourable conditions for incubation at Rampur Forest Range. “Perhaps, it is the first time when snake breeding through artificial incubation was carried out in nature. Of the 28 eggs, 22 hatched successfully while five premature deaths were noticed inside eggs,” said Mr. Mallick.
“The newborns would be released in the nature very soon. We hope nature would take care of pythons,” he said.
