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Monday, September 6, 2010

There was a strange visitor at home



This happened on the 21st August. I was preparing a post for my Hindi Blog and it was already half past ten at night. Suddenly I heard my son calling me and there was a kind of emergency in his tone. I ran down and found him pointing towards the main entrance. There was a curled snake lying between the door and the wall. It so happened that he was about to close the main door when he spotted the reptile. I pacified him and suggested not to panic. I asked him to bring the camera, to which he retorted, what dad, there is a snake in the house and you want to have a photo session. He did bring the camera and I took few snaps randomly.


Because of the noise from my house, my immediate neighbor dropped in and got scared. Then there was an influx of young and old with sticks and all that. I requested people not to hurt the creature which has factually strayed in seeking shelter. The same snake was spotted  a day earlier at night in front of the main gate of a house adjacent to mine, remaining closed.  Up to midnight people were hunting for the poor thing but it could escape un hurt.

I had some basic  ideas about the Indian Snakes but the common view emerging from the small gathering of people from my campus was that it was a Python. In that case I would have ventured to catch it by its head and put it in a sack. When I had a closer look and particularly when it moved its head, it occurred to me that this is the deadliest variety, a Viper, referred to as Russels Viper. It is also sluggish but when threatened  could become extremely agile and attack. Among all the Indian Poisonous snakes, Viper’s venom is deadliest as the venom required to kill a person is the least when compared to Cobra and Krait. However, normally, they  do not attack humans and it also does not inject the fatal dose required for a human to die of the bite. As compared to this the Cobra injects a much larger quantity of venom per bite.

At my request, the snake catchers were summoned. They came in their van. Pretended to be scared of catching it telling people around that they can catch cobras by hand but not this one. This spits venom, very very dangerous and so on. Then they asked for a large container with a lid, which was provided. The Viper was not willing to get into the trap. It moved forward but obstacles were created and finally it was in the container with lid tightened with a rope. We heard its angry hissings. It was thus taken away providing the relief we needed but at a price.

31 comments:

  1. Oh my God! Its unbelievable. Such a huge and poisonous snake. Looks so scary.

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  2. Russel Viper - really scary one. But your decision was very correct.

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  3. Oh my god..Once I livedf in a place where snakes were very common, but I am really scared of them.

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  4. I am so afraid of snakes. Thank you for coming by.

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  5. Thanks a lot for your lovely comments.

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  6. Wonderful captures. I will be definitely scared.

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  7. Hi PNS:)

    Snakes always frighten me whether they are poisonous or not.The one you have captured with your lens looks very dangerous. You have provided some interesting information on the snakes. People living in towns like me hardly get an opportunity to see snakes.

    I remember a young engineer was bitten by a snake when he went to close the gate in the night. I understand he stanmped the snake without seeing it and it bit him very badly.They rushed the young man to the Medical Trust hospital in Kochi but the doctors could not save his life.

    Best wishes PNS:)
    Joseph

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  8. You are welcome at my new post -
    http://urmi-z-unique.blogspot.com/

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  9. That is very interesting. Not many people would have bothered to save the snake. Thanks to you the snake is alive.

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  10. Scary ! The fellow look huge ! Nice to know he was saved.

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  11. Oh that's so scary ! Good that you didn't try to catch it on your own. It's huge sized.

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  12. Suprisingly, two weeks back, my friend told me there was a snake is to be seen near the glass window in the morning time. I hired two labours to clean the surroundings and they found three snakes. They killed them. As I was not 0n the site, I could not make out whether they wre poisionous or not. I think because of large scale urbanisation, wild creatures are migrating to cities. Any solution for this ?.

    T.V.K.murthy, Dombivili, Maharashtra

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  13. @TVK Murthy:

    Wild creatures are not migrating to cities. It is the other way round. we are migrating to their habitats!

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  14. Thanks a ton for your lovely comment on my travel blog :)
    I found your blog is very honest and original...loved every bit of it !
    Please, do visit my other blog http://rainbow-thecoloursofindia.blogspot.com/
    Cheers
    Sanghamitra.

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  15. Thanks for visiting my post.
    You were cool enough to picture it. hats off, I would have taken to my heels.

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  16. I have left a comment on Jews of Kochi too. chk when you find time.

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  17. I am so scary. Really u are gr8.
    Beautiful blog.
    www.vijsvegkitchen.blogspot.com
    www.vijiscreations.blogspot.com

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  18. thank you sir for the comment... happy blogging!

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  19. legal demais seu blog
    http://legaljunior.blogspot.com/

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  20. hello, here for the first time and i see such an interesting post!!!
    your son reacted in the most normal manner, but us bloggers have the tendency to photo inventory a lot so even ur reaction was pretty normal!!!!...

    thank god, the snake was beaten to death and shifted safely away!!

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  21. Happy Ganesha Chaturthi to you and your family. Hope Lord Ganesha brings happiness and peace in your life.

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  22. Very beautiful creature, but to protect its beauty perhaps, venomous too!

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  23. hii
    my gawd! Russel Viper is the most deadly of all the serpents.. but why is the shade of the creature different in both the pics ?

    nice blog :)

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  24. @AS:
    Beacuse of different lighting conditions. One shot was after switching on the nearest florescent lamp.

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  25. आपका हिन्दी बलाग कहाँ गया?

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  26. Good work, PNS. To remain calm and save the creature from getting killed. And kudos to the presence of mind to take pictures. Yesterday, an owl came inside our apartment. Though I took the camera, couldn't take pictures as it was flying all around. I concentrated more on switching off the fan and opening doors and windows. :)

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  27. Hi P.N.Subramanian! What a story... How could I have missed it...

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