HISSS… in your neighbourhood!

Friday, July 09, 2010 . ADC City . Page 2

As breeding season ends, snakes and other ‘refugees’ straying into residential areas

On Tuesday, an adult Wolf Snake was rescued from the BARC colony by the wild life rescue team of PAWS. “The locals called and informed us about the snake, which was found sitting inside the post box by a postman in BARC colony. Though it is a small snake and also non-poisonous, he got scared when he opened the box to take the letters out and saw it sitting in there,” said R.V. Raghavan, a member of the Wildlife Rescue team, PAWS.

“It is common to find baby snakes these days as the breeding season is over. During the rains, the burrows get filled-up with water, so they come out and stray into residential areas. Another reason is that in Mumbai, snakes are losing their natural habitat to rampant construction,” said Sunish Subramanian, founder and secretary, PAWS, Mumbai.

In a span of two weeks, two Spectacled Cobras, four Rat Snakes, four Wolf Snakes, one Checkered Keel Back Snake and one Russell’s Viper were rescued from Mulund and Chembur areas were rescued by PAWS.

So what should one do to keep these slithering beauties away from our houses and localities?

“Remove all the debris, garbage and unkempt bushes as it is a hiding place for them. Put nets on windows and washroom and keep the doors closed. Stop keeping your pet birds on windows and trim the branches of trees that touch the windows. Fill all the holes around the resident areas especially rat holes. Try to trim the bushes and make them small as it then becomes easier to spot a hiding snake,” advised Sunish.

“If you spot any snake in a residential area, don’t kill it. Call a snake rescue team. Keep a watch till rescue team arrives and don’t disturb the snake,” added Sunish.

Five days ago, 17 little ones of poisonous cobra were rescued from a building under construction at Dombivli. One Common Egret, three Barn Owls and one Monitor Lizard were also rescued in the last two weeks.

Helpline numbers:

*For snakes or injured birds: PAWS-Mumbai: 9892179542, 9833480388

Common snakes found in residential areas:

*Spectacled Cobra, Russell’s Viper, Saw-Scaled Viper, Common Indian Krait and Common Vine Snake are venomous snakes.
*Rat Snake (Dhaman), Checkered Keelback, Buff-Striped Keelback, Banded Kukri, Common Wolf Snake, Common Sand Boa and Indian Rock Python are non-venomous snakes.

First aid tips in case of snake bite (most victims are bitten by cobras and Russell’s Vipers):

*If the bite is on the hand, tie a tourniquet (a cloth piece) above the elbow on the arm
*If the bite is on the leg, tie the tourniquet above the knee, on the thigh
*This stops the poison from spreading in the other parts of the body
*Incision method: If two prominent fang marks are visible, then give a quarter centimetre cut, lengthwise, breadthwise and widthwise as this will help around 50 per cent of the poison to flow out of the body.
*Potassium Permanganate: Mix 4-5 crystals of Potassium Permanganate in half a glass of water and pour it continuously on the bitten area. This helps neutralise some enzymes of the poison. There are 26 enzymes in a snake’ poison out of which 50 per cent can be neutralised.
*Immobilise the person who has been bitten, as making him walk fast or run will increase the blood circulation and the poison will spread in the body.
Following these steps gives the patient two hours of time to be taken to a hospital.

Floating for days, dead crocodile taken out of Powai Lake and buried

04th - 10th July 2010 . Front Page

No post-mortem carried out to ascertain cause of death. Lake water sample sent for testing. Local residents blame pollution of water body for the reptile's death.

The local water body of Powai Lake has its crocs remain in news for some reason or the other. On Sunday morning a local resident and animal activist Siddarth Tayde spotted a dead crocodile floating in the water hyacinth at the Ganesh Visarjan Ghat. He immediately informed PAWS about the dead croc.

Nisha Kunju of PAWS said, “It may be due to ongoing beautification work of the lake by the BMC which has taken toll of the Powai Lake's eco-system and its habitat. BMC should check the pollution in the lake and Forest Department should conduct a post mortem to find out the reason of death. It is very important to take this issue seriously”.

The dead crocodile, floating for several days was finally removed on Wednesday evening and buried near the bank, without a post-mortem as the carcass was too far decomposed.

Environmentalists said, “The BMC should conduct a complete environment impact assessment of the lake to ensure the bio-diversity of the region is not in danger. We should also find out the current count of crocodiles.” Residents fear the carcass has contaminated the water and have demanded that the BMC test it.

Sunish Subramainan of Plant & Animal Welfare Society, who had first reported the presence of the carcass, said, “Even if it were highly decomposed, the forest officials should not have quietly buried it. A post-mortem was necessary to find out if the death was natural or if the water is in good condition.”

BMC's hydraulic engineer Vinay Deshpande said he had inspected the lake and found no evidence of danger to animal life. “Usually if there is any contamination, we'd have found dead fish in the water. That was not the case here. However, as a precaution, I have asked my department to collect water samples for tests. Tests will be done at our labs in Bhandup complex or Dadar; samples will also be sent to the Thane Municipal Corporation laboratory.

Samples of Powai lake water sent for testing

Mumbai . Friday, July 2, 2010 . Page 5

A day after a crocodile carcass was taken off the banks of Powai lake, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has sent water samples collected from the water body for a quality check.

The samples will be tested at a municipal water testing facility at Bhandup complex, said hydraulic engineer Vinay Deshpande.

He added that some samples have been sent to a laboratory run by the Thane Municipal Corporation for third party audit on the water’s quality.

The eight-foot-long carcass was lying on the banks since Sunday.

The hydraulic department, which owns the property, admitted to the delay in fishing it out. Coordination issues with the forest department were blamed for the delay.

While the results for the samples were expected in four days, Deshpande said, “On first look, it did not seem as if marine life in the lake was affected.”

Some of the local residents had blamed pollution in the water body for the reptile’s death. The civic body is carrying out beautification work in and around the banks. Deshpande, however, refuted the claim. “The beautification work being spoken of was halted before the start of monsoon,” he said.

The precise cause of crocodile’s death, however, will be difficult to ascertain. According to Dr S Jangle from the office of the chief conservator of forest in Thane, no post mortem could be performed as the carcass was highly decomposed.

Dead crocodile fished out of lake and buried without postmortem

Mumbai . Friday . July 02, 2010 . Page 2

Mumbai : Floating for days in the Powai lake, a dead crocodile was finally removed on Wednesday evening and buried near the bank, without a postmortem as the carcass was too far decomposed.

“From the extent of putrefaction, it seems the animal died at least a week ago. The carcass was full of maggots,” said SGNP veterinarian Dr Vinaya Jangale, part of the team designated to perform a postmortem on the spot. It was buried after noting down the extent of decay.

Residents fear the carcass has contaminated the water and have demanded that the BMC test it. “The BMC should conduct a complete environment impact assessment of the lake to ensure the bio-diversity of the region is not in danger. We should also find out the current count of crocodiles.”

Sunish Subramainan of Plant & Animal Welfare Society, who had first reported the presence of the carcass, said, “Even if it were highly decomposed, the forest officials should not have quietly buried it. A postmortem was necessary to find out if the death was natural or if the water is in good condition.”

BMC hydraulic engineer Vinay Deshpande said he had inspected the lake and found no evidence of danger to animal life. “Usually if there is any contamination, we’d have found dead fish in the water. That was not the case here. However, as a precaution, I have asked my department to collect water samples for tests. Tests will be done at our labs in Bhandup complex or Dadar; samples will also be sent to the Thane Municipal Corporation laboratory.”

Dead croc story gets buried!

Thursday, July 01, 2010 . Page 24

“Even after a week going by, no one has been able to pinpoint the reason for the crocodile’s death. Looking at the putrefied body, an autopsy is out of question,” said the vets from the forest department on Wednesday, who examined the body of the crocodile that was found dead and floating on the Powai Lake.

It may be recalled that ADC was the only newspaper to report about the sad end of the crocodile, (Tears for the crocodile, June 30).

After an inspection, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) along with forest department officials, at around 8 pm on Wednesday, buried the croc’s body, leaving a question mark over its death.

According to Dr. Jangle, “The body had decomposed to a level where autopsy was simply not possible.”

However, it seems that the BMC official aren’t keen on further investigations, and are assuming that the crocodile could have died a natural death.

Pramod Guhe, Deputy Hydraulic Engineer, said, “There were no injury marks on the body. Neither did the lake have bodies of other animals suggesting that the water is pollution free. All of which indicated that the crocodile must have died a natural death.”