Forest Department officials rescued four Indian rock pythons from a temple near Kottampatti near here on Sunday.
The residents of Chokkalingapuram at Manametupatti village alerted the officials after they spotted the snakes at a small farm on the temple premises.
“We rescued the snakes from there and released them in a forest area near Alagarkovil Hills. The snakes were not poisonous,” an official said. “These snakes usually wander into villages in search of food and often pick up the scent of chicken coops,” he added.
District Forest Officer Nihar Ranjan said while there were a spate of incidents of snakes being rescued in Kottampatti during October and November last year, the numbers had greatly come down.
“Snakes are entering human habitations near Kottampatti as the terrain is hilly in the region. The local people told us that a large number of rabbits were illegally hunted there, which might have forced the snakes to wander into the villages in search of food,” he said.
“The department is taking measures to distribute the population of snakes by releasing the rescued snakes in different locations,” he added.