14 snakes caught from Thanjavur hospital premises

THANJAVUR: An eight-member team from the Endangered Wildlife and Environment Trust has caught 14 snakes, including six venomous varieties, from the premise of the Government Rajah Mirasdar Hospital in Thanjavur. They handed over all the venomous snakes to the forest department here on Thursday.
The hospital, with separate blocks for obstetrics and gynaecology and ophthalmology, has a vast area of empty land, where a large number of wild plants and bushes are grown.A few patients noticed snakes around the bushes. Based on the information, district collector M Govinda Rao ordered officials to take steps to clean the hospital premises. The officials engaged a team of eight snake catchers from Endangered Wildlife and Environment Trust.
After spending a whole day on Wednesday, the team caught five Russell’s vipers, two rat snakes and three worm snakes. On Thursday, the team caught three more rat snakes and a cobra from the compound, said Sathishkumar, one of the team members. Workers engaged to clean the premises cleared the bushes using an earth mover.
When contacted, Sathishkumar told TOI that they handed over all the six venomous snakes to the forest department officials to let the reptiles into the reserve forest, while other non-venomous snakes were released into agriculture fields.