The Hindu : Other States / Orissa News : Catching snakes with ease

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Thursday, Jul 12, 2007
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Catching snakes with ease

Correspondent

Nagaraju had caught a reptile for first time when he was in school

He gets calls both from within and without Koraput district
Tools can help him render his voluntary service better, he says

KORAPUT: It was a large-sized cobra hidden in the staircase of a residence in Pujariput colony of Koraput. Bobbili Nagaraju, a youth from Kanheiput, was on the job of getting it out . It took seven hours for him to catch the snake and it was the 593rd catch for him.

Nagaraju is common name with residents of Koraput for he catches snakes with ease and that too without causing any harm to the reptile. He loves to catch and leave them in the nearby forest. Nagaraju had caught a snake for the first time when he was in school, his friends said . While everyone had run out of the class, Nagaraju had daringly caught it . Since then it was a joy to save people from the snake and vice versa, Nagaraju said. He gets calls both from within and without the district. The longest cobra he had caught was 12 feet long, in a village in Kalahandi district, he said. He does not charge anything for his service . People with little knowledge of snakes often kill them and cause serious problems for the preservation of bio-diversity, he said .

Wide variety

Koraput has many varieties of Cobra: Khir Nag, Tamba Nag, Kalatia Nag, Champa Nag and Tentuli Nag are a few of them that he has caught so far . However tools to catch the snakes could help him to render his voluntary service better, he said. With no earnings in his hand except to sell a few litres of milk in the market , he could hardly possess any sophisticated instruments to catch even the deadliest cobra . One pair of good leather gloves and a catching stick would do, he said.

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