Amateur snakecatcher bittenby reptile hecaught, dies

Thiruvananthapuram: An amateur snake catcher died in the district after he was allegedly bitten by a snake that he had caught. Sakeer of Sasthavattom near Chirayinkeezh is the deceased. The incident happened on Sunday night at Navaikkulam under Kallambalam police station limits.
According to police, Sakeer was an amateur snake catcher and he was bitten while he was posing for the cameras with the reptile had he caught from a house at Navaikkulam. Though he was rushed to the hospital, he could not be saved.
The snake was later caught by snake catcher Vava Suresh, whom the locals summoned following the incident.
Kallambalam police said the body of the deceased was handed over to the family on Tuesday after postmortem.
Meanwhile, the state government has reportedly taken a decision to control the activity of unauthorised snake catching in the state by making license mandatory for snake catchers. An order in this regard is expected to be issued within a few days.
Sources in the forest department said the government decision was not influenced by the death of Sakeer. In fact, a proposal in this regard was sent to the government three days prior to the incident. The idea was mooted in a meeting of senior forest department officials convened by chief conservator of forest on Friday.
“The decision was influenced by the developments in Uthra murder case in Kollam, in which an unauthorised snake catcher was involved,” said a source in the department. Snake catchers were supposed to hand over snakes they caught to forest department or leave them back in the wild. Often, most snake catchers chose to keep the reptile with them and in rare cases, these snakes end up in the hands of people with malicious intentions,” sources said.