With monsoon, snake menace raises concern in Uttara Kannada

Karwar: With monsoon around, reptiles especially snakes have started sneaking into houses adjacent to hilly areas.
But lack of expertise among forest officials to catch snakes has become a major worry as house owners have to wait till a snake catcher comes to take the poisonous reptiles out.
A snake entered into the house of one Babu Malsekar at Linganayakanawaada, an area surrounded by hills and forest, in Karwar on Monday evening.
“My family spent the whole night in a neighbour's hose while I along with some neighbours stayed awake to keep a close watch on the snake which had swallowed a rat inside our house," said a terrified Babu adding, he made repeated calls to forest officials who didn't respond.
On Monday afternoon, Mahesh Naik, a snake lover who rescues trapped snakes from houses and release them in forests, came upon the request of forest officials and took the snake out.
“He (Mahesh) came from Avarsa, about 25km off Karwar. If we kill these snakes, the same forest officials will book us under several acts. We requested them to catch the snake and they arrived after 15 hours,” alleged Babu.
Snakes often enter streams in forests in search of fish or frogs. In case it's a python, people catch it on their own but they have to inform an expert if it's a king cobra, Russell’s viper, krait, said Manohar Naik, a local.
Naik, who is also a nature lover, has caught about 3,300 snakes in the last eight years of which 683 are pythons, 967 cobras, 73 Russell’s vipers and 37 kraits. He urged forest officials to train its own officials in catching snakes instead of depending on outsiders like him. “I am ready to train them, free of cost,” said Naik.
“I have to inform the forest officials before catching snakes every time. Sometimes, these officials can’t be contacted. I also don’t take risk in catching snakes on my own as forest officials create problems later,” he said.