[ Bengia Ajum ]
TIPPI, 17 Jul: In a state like Arunachal Pradesh where snake rescue is a completely new concept, a team of snake rescuers belonging to the Tippi wildlife range under Pakke Tiger Reserve is making waves by rescuing more than 400 snakes to date. The rescued snakes include venomous ones like cobras, kraits and pit vipers, non-venomous ones like checkered keelback, wolf snake etc. The five members led by range forest officer (RFO) Kime Rambia of Tippi wildlife range include Hage Tamang(driver), Raju Boro (beat guard), Niranjan Boro (night guard) and Krishna Lamgu (STPF).
The idea of forming snake rescue took shape in 2013. “We carried out rigorous outreach activities at Tippi-Bhalukpong areas especially, in rural villages and schools to educate people about human-animal conflicts. Locals also responded positively. On and off we started getting distress calls for human-elephant conflict. When we started managing the conflict we also started receiving rescue calls for mammals and birds,” shared RFO Kime Rambia.
Slowly people started calling for the rescue of the snakes. However, the Tippi Wildlife range officials did not know much about snake rescue back then except for attending a few workshops organized by Gerry Martin at Pakke and Eagle Nest WLS in 2015-16. Gerry is from Karnataka and runs an organization called the Gerry Martin Project. He organizes extensive awareness of human-snake conflict
“With bare minimum knowledge, we started to try to rescue snakes. Few were successful but many failed with life-threatening experiences. I shared our misery with then DFO Tana Tapi and Gerry Martin. It was Gerry who suggested that we should go to Hunsur and learn hands-on real-life situations,” said Rambia.
Accordingly, in July 2017, five members from Pakke Tiger Reserve which include RFO Kime Rambia, Hage Tamang(driver), Raju Boro (beat guard), Sanjit Brah, STPF and Ohey Tayem, STPF were trained at Gerry’s facility in Hunsur in Karnataka. The 4 staff from Eaglenest WLS also joined.
“Our trip was sponsored by a conservation biologist and a well-wisher Shradha Rathod. Gerry was kind enough to support the stay, food and training for the entire team for 10 days. At Hunsur we learnt about snake identification, behaviour and venom status of snakes,” informed Rambia.
The team started handling and understanding their movements with non-venomous snakes first and later with venomous ones. Rescuing them by bagging, safe release and bite management were trained during the stay.
The team now carries out regular awareness and sensitization programmes about snake behaviour in and around Pakke. Based on their experience RFO Kime Rambia along with his co-author Shradha Rathod has written a book called Snakes of Pakke, which gives an account of 46 snakes found in and around Pakke.
