This story is from January 30, 2019

Beware, serpents are invading Hyd

Beware, serpents are invading Hyd
Hyderabad: The city is getting infested with poisonous snakes and residents of areas like Jubilee Hills, Gachibowli, Kondapur and Attapur have to be on guard in particular as it was in these areas where most of the snakes were trapped by forest department officials. Pointing to poisonous snakes including cobras getting adapted to human habitat in Hyderabad city, an analysis of rescues of snakes by Friends of Snakes Society with the help of the Telangana forest department in 2018 revealed that not only has the numbers of snakes rescued has increased, but also that 50 per cent of them were Spectacled Cobras (the common Indian cobra).

Giving details of their findings, Friends of Snakes Society Chief Functionary Avinash Visvanathan told TOI: “The trend we observed in metros like Hyderabad was that the presence of certain snake species that prey on rats is increasing. Cobras and Rat Snakes population is increasing particularly in the open plots filled with garbage which has high rodent population. Forest-dwelling non-venomous species like Buff Striped Keelback and Rock Python have almost been wiped out in the city, the latter due to indiscriminate rock blasting for construction. As a result, the city is being infested with only poisonous snakes like Spectacled Cobra, Russels Viper, Common Krait and Saw-Scaled viper. These poisonous snakes contributed to 57 per cent of snakes rescued in the city.”
FoSS in 2018 rescued a total of 5593 snakes (including outside GHMC limits) of which 5457 were from in and around the twin cities. Out of them, 2835 were Spectacled Cobras. These species survive in a wide variety of environmental conditions and feed on varied diet and breed and thrive well in urban setup, especially in areas with improper garbage disposal and rodent infestation.
The snake society gets on an average at least hundred snake-related distress calls every day and around 450 of them are rescued each month. The frequency of snake encounters in GHMC limits and its periphery are on a steady rise. “We treat the injured snakes at Nehru Zoological Park while the healthy ones are relocated to forest areas after being kept for a while in the snake shelter in Sainikpuri,” Avinash said and added, “due to unavailability of space, animals invariably are entering human settlements. Most numbers of distress calls were received from those areas that are witnessing rapid developmental activities.”
Zoologists say that terrestrial snakes that are burrowing in nature are thriving while tree dwelling (arboreal snakes) are dwindling as the city has lost green cover except in KBR park and other patches on the outskirts.
According to Osmania University Zoologist Dr C Srinivasulu, “Urban ecosystems have lost tree dwelling snakes. Only terrestrial snakes that naturally occur in construction areas and are easily spotted are being rescued. These snakes have successfully adapted to urban conditions and thriving. Communities where garbage is dumped in open plots abetting houses turn breeding grounds for rats which in turn attract snakes. This show how unhygienic we are in disposing of our garbage.”

The frequency of snake encounters is higher during the months of June, July, October and November. Snake encounters vary depending on the time of the year, chiefly due to climatic conditions, and dependence of breeding cycles on temperature and precipitation.
GFX
* In 2014 around 3151 snakes rescued
* In 2015 3390 snakes rescued
* In 2016 around 3099 snakes rescued
* In 2017 around 4504 snakes rescued
* In 2018 around 5457 snakes rescued
* Areas with more spottings of snakes Hayathnagar, Uppal, LB Nagar, Attapur, Rajendranagar, Jubilee Hills, Kondapur, Gachibowli, Serilingampally, Miyapur, Ramachandrapuram, Patancheruvu, Chandanagar, Kukatpally
* 2835 Spectacled Cobras were rescued, which is 50.69 per cent of the total rescues
* 1583 Rat Snakes were rescued (28.30 per cent of the total snakes rescued)
* 260 Russell's Vipers were rescued (4.65 per cent)
* 226 Checkered Keelbacks were rescued (4.04 per cent)
* 164 Banded Racers were rescued (2.93 per cent)
* 151 Bronzeback Tree Snakes were rescued (2.7 per cent)
* 95 Common Sand Boas were rescued (1.7 per cent)
* 50 Common Trinkets were rescued (0.89 per cent)
* 47 Indian Rock Pythons were rescued (0.84 per cent)
* 39 Red Sand Boas were rescued (0.7 per cent)
* 34 Common Kraits were rescued (0.61 per cent)
* 33 Common Wolf Snakes were rescued (0.59 per cent)
* 19 Banded Kukris were rescued (0.34 per cent)
* 18 Green Vine Snakes were rescued (0.32 per cent)
* 10 Yellow-collared Wolf Snakes were rescued (0.18 per cent)
* 8 Russell's Kukris were rescued (0.14 per cent)
* 7 Green Keelbacks were rescued (0.13 per cent)
* 4 Brahminy Worm Snakes were rescued (0.07 per cent)
* 4 Buff-striped Keelbacks were rescued (0.07 per cent)
* 4 Nagarjunsagar Racers were rescued (0.07 per cent)
* 3 Barred Wolf Snakes were rescued (0.05 per cent)
* 2 Saw-scaled Vipers were rescued (0.04 per cent)
ENDS
End of Article
FOLLOW US ON SOCIAL MEDIA