Initially, we carved a small garden around the house. The rest of the farm was left untended as we hoped that native trees would regenerate from seeds dispersed by birds. Instead, weeds thrived and formed an impenetrable tangled mess.
Around that time, I was rearing a litter of three orphaned mongoose pups and one afternoon all of them disappeared into a small bush behind the house. I could hear growling and snarling, and then suddenly a loud pressure cooker hiss: Russell's viper!
I yelled, whistled and tried to cajole the pups back but they were disobedient brats. I could see nothing, neither snake nor mongooses. All I could do was wait and hope for the best. Eventually, the threesome emerged unscathed while the snake had apparently pushed off to a more peaceful abode.
A few years later, our gorgeous German Shepherd, Malam, died of suspected cobra bite. The experience completely shook me up, and I went bush-cutting with a vengeance. The forest on one side and the rice fields on the other makes this farm a busy snake highway. No matter how clean we kept the farm, there was just no avoiding the vipers and ‘hooded death'.
Then we got Pokhiri Raja, an exceptional mongrel. Like all other puppies we have had, we allowed a water snake to bite Pokhiri's nose. He yelped while he stumbled backwards, and looked at the snake with renewed respect. Usually, that was enough to train dogs to stay away from snakes forever. But Pokhiri took it a step further and became so sensitive that he could literally smell snakes.
In the midst of a boisterous game with fellow pups, he would suddenly wander off with his nose high in the air. If we were out of sight, he growled and bristled in a special manner that he reserved just for snakes. No matter what we were doing, in the middle of a phone conversation or entertaining guests, if we heard that special growl, we were out of the house in a trice. Pokhiri's record in finding the reptiles remains unbeaten by any of the many dogs we have known.
So, what do we do once the snake is spotted? We used to scoop up the venomous ones and release them in the adjacent forest. But, since this appears to cause severe problems for them, the best thing to do is to keep escape routes clear so the reptile can find its own way out. These creatures have probably been up and down the farm several times, and it is only on that one occasion that we managed to see them.
A lot of people titter about how petrified they are of snakes. When it comes to rat snakes, just gulp down your wimpiness and learn to live with them as they discourage all other snakes from taking up residence. If you remove that snake, another snake will surely fill its niche, and it just could be a cobra or a Russell's. Which one would you prefer?
When we moved to the farm, Rom and I were romantic minimalists; we didn't want any furniture so we slept on the floor for the first year or so. Until one day he was bitten by a centipede, right on his tender ear. It could have been a snake, we exclaimed to each other with hands covering our mouths in dawning realisation. Duh! We promptly got a bed, and since then there have been no untoward incidents.
The plants, that several of you believe will keep snakes away, just do not exist! There is no other way of discouraging the creatures from taking up residence than keeping the entire farm mowed and clear of piles of firewood, rubble and junk. Needless to say, there are likely to be the occasional wandering snakes so there is no substitute for being alert.
(The author can be reached at janaki@gmail.com)
