A handful of mongoose hair forcibly pierced through its head — that’s the unusual state in which a rat snake was recovered from outside a temple in U.P.’s Mathura district from the “illegal custody” of a snake charmer.
The snake was fitted with mongoose hair to give it “a more appealing look”, said Wildlife SOS, a wildlife conservation NGO, which described it as a “most horrifying sight”.
16 snakes seized
A total of 16 snakes were seized from snake charmers outside three different temples in Mathura and Vrindavan.
Wildlife SOS carried out the anti-poaching operation jointly with the State forest department.
Apart from the rat snake, 11 cobras, three red sand boas and a juvenile royal snake were rescued from outside the Galteshwar and Rangeshwar temples in Mathura and the Gopeshwar Mahadev temple in Vrindavan.
The snakes are currently under the care and treatment of Wildlife SOS, which said the snakes were “in dreadful condition”.
The recovery of the snakes coincides with the month of Shravan as per the Hindu calendar, considered auspicious by devotees of Lord Shiva, the NGO said.
“Due to Lord Shiva’s frequent depiction with a serpent coiled around his neck, snake charmers will often display their snakes at such gatherings [temples], to take advantage of people’s devotion and scam them into giving them money,” it said.
Kartick Satyanarayan, co-founder and CEO of Wildlife SOS, said: “Venomous snakes like cobras have their fangs extracted and their venom glands are painfully gouged out or punctured, thus disabling the snake’s only means of defence, feeding and digestion.”