Heat drives pythons out of hills into city

The pythons that were caught by snake catcher R. Kiran Kumar from various places in Vizag being displayed. They were later handed over to the Indira Gandhi Zoological Park in the city.— Photo: K.R. Deepak

It was around 8.30 a.m. on a weekday, and crowds gathered on either side of the road at Pharma City at Parawada. “My heart skipped a beat, as I saw a big python, around 10-foot long, in the bushes just beside the road. Schoolchildren and office-goers stopped at a safe distance away and watched as the reptile slithered into the bushes,” recalled B.V.M. Patnaik, a private security guard, who was walking back home after duty on that day.

“I remembered that I had noted down the mobile number of a snake catcher after seeing it in a hoarding in the industrial area and called him”. “I am catching another python nearby, I will come as soon as I finish this task,” he replied and he was on the spot in 10 minutes flat.

It was the turn of the waiting crowd to be puzzled. “We were taken aback, when he caught the huge reptile with his bare hands as though it was a rope and left after informing us that he would hand them over to the zoo authorities,” he recalled.

“The pythons that live in the Eastern Ghat range in and around the city are entering the habitations with loss of their natural habitat and the high temperatures in the last month have forced them out of the hills,” snake catcher R. Kiran told

The Hindu as he was on his way to handover the four huge pythons to the Zoo on Friday. He had caught two of them at Visakhapatnam Steel Plant (VSP), one Pharma City and one at Pendurthy during the past one week.

“Pythons are included in Schedule-I of the Wildlife Protecting Act. Post Hudhud cyclone (October 2014), I had caught and handed over 10 pythons (including these four) to the zoo. I had started the Snake Saver Society and trained 10 members besides training student volunteers,” says Mr. Kiran, who had made it to the Limca Book for catching over 10,000 snakes in the past.

So, what’s the tally now? “I have lost track, I have stopped counting,” he says.

He had caught about a dozen snakes like: vipers and cobras at the Railway Quarters at Dondaparthy a few months ago.

The VSP management had provided him a quarter free of cost in recognition of his services in catching snakes in the plant and residential areas. He hopes that the Andhra Pradesh government would provide vehicles to the Snake Saver Society for transport of the snakes as was being in other States.

He can be reached on the mobile no. 98491 40500.