Forestry students play with snakes

By Gokarna Poudel

Tulsipur, Oct. 31: The students studying Forestry at Metro College in Tulsipur of the Dang district have started learning about snakes. 

The college has launched a course on snake rescue skill for the forestry students with an aim of conserving snakes, which play an important role in ecosystem.

Basant Acharya, the head of the college, said that every year several citizens die of snakebites and the idea that snakes should be killed as soon as they are seen should be changed. 

“To bring about the change, the students are being taught the skills to rescue and conserve the reptiles,” he said. 

According to him, 20 students who have been studying the subject at the initial stage are learning skills to rescue snake. 

Gradually, the students will carry out snake protection and rescue works in the villages. He said that necessary materials for snake rescue would be produced by the students studying technical subjects in the college.

Bhuwan Basnet, who is studying Forestry, said that although he used to get a scare when he saw a snake in the past, after receiving training on rescue, he could  safely extricate the snakes seen in the village and release them into the forest.

Basanta Subedi, who has identified and rescued 3,000 snakes, said that since 100 species of snakes are in an endangered condition, rescue training was mandatory in every village for the protection of the snakes. 

He said that snakes could be protected if everyone helped create  a situation where they did not fear snakes but loved them like other animals.

Sandeep Oli, who is studying zoology at Trichandra College and has been identifying and rescuing snakes in the Babai Rural Municipality area, said that among the 24 species of snakes in the district, the python, which is a protected animal by the Nepal government, was rescued from the rural municipality-7 last year after identifying it.

He alone released 200 snakes from Babai Rural Municipality in a year. 

He said, “Now, no matter what kind of snake is seen in the village, the villagers report me for rescue.”

 A message has been sent that the snake should be saved and not killed, he added.