AA Block residents are living in fear after multiple snake sightings in their midst and even a snake bite.
Debasish Chanda of AA 128 got bitten by a snake on June 25. “I had opened our front door at 7.30am, stepped on something soft and instinctively shut the door. I thought it was a mouse or cat. When I opened it again to check, a snake leapt and bit me,” says the IT sector employee who had to be admitted at the sub-divisional hospital for a couple of days for observation. “Luckily it was a non-poisonous snake.”
Debasish Chanda at his doorstep, where he was bitten. Brinda Sarkar
A week or so after the incident, the Chandas’ domestic help found another snake among their plates on a kitchen table. This time they shut the doors and called the forest department, whose workers took the snake away.
“This one was a non-poisonous Indian rat snake,” says Chanda.
On Monday, a 27-year-old security guard died of a snake bite near Technocity police station in New Town. On July 2, a 23-year-old youth died of a snake bite near Downtown Mall in New Town.
So frequent have snake sightings become in New Town that the complex Elita Garden Vista has now started storing snake venom antidote on campus. The news was reported in The Telegraph Salt Lake on June 23. Back in AA 151, another snake was spotted some days later and that too on the first floor.
“We have no idea how it climbed up,” says Suparna Mondal, who saw the snake slithering in through a large keyhole on their door past 10 o’clock at night.
“The forest department, that took the snake away, said it was a non-poisonous wolf snake but the thought of a snake itself gives us shivers. We weren’t able to sleep peacefully for several nights after this and are still living in fear.”
In yet another incident, a snake climbed into the balcony of AA 137, slipped into a bird cage kept there and ate up one of the bird’s eggs! “We ran out when we heard the birds fluttering and screeching unnaturally. We were stunned with what we saw,” says P. Datta, who has an empty and unkempt plot next door.
“We often see snakes cross the street and head towards the field in front of our house where children learn cricket. It’s another snake bite waiting to happen.”
Time to act
AA Block secretary Partho Chakraborty has been getting multiple calls from residents about the sightings.
“We have been in touch with the ward committee and they have increased the frequency of grass trimming around the block. We are also stressing on residents to keep their own gardens clean,” said Chakraborty.
Councillor Ratna Bhaumik said her workers are doing their best. “It is difficult as there are seven blocks and limited staff in their ward and but they still they go cutting grass and keeping clean. Many houses where snakes appeared were dirty too and residents need to keep clean. Else not just snakes but mosquitoes will also emerge.”
The Wildlife Animal Rescue and Transit Facility Centre has been getting up to 30-odd calls a day of late, and an officer there admits snake sightings become more common during monsoon.
“This is the breeding period of animals and snake eggs also hatch now. This is why all national parks shut down in monsoon; so tourists don’t disturb the animals in season. Besides, snakes come out in search of food. They eat frogs, mice and sometimes, smaller snakes,” says an officer of the AE Block centre.
“We get up to 30 calls a day out of which about half require us to go over and rescue the animals. Our vans may be in any part of town when someone calls to report a snake sighting. We ask callers to click the snake and message us the picture. If we can identify the snake and confirm that it’s a non-poisonous, they will at least not panic till we reach. But one mustn’t risk one’s life and try to get too close to any snake,” he says.