Forest department circular bites snake rescuers

AHMEDABAD: More than 100 snake handlers staged a demonstration against the state forest department at Bodakdev Rescue Centre on Friday. They were protesting against a new circular issued by the department announcing a new rule for snake rescuers.
Mukesh Bhati of the NGO, Shree Cultural Foundation, said the new rule quotes provisions of the Wildlife Protection Act-1972 to say that if a snake handler in any part of the city rescues a snake, he has to rush it to the Bodakdev Rescue Centre.“And if he is at a place far away and is unable to reach the centre, he has to inform the forest department and wait for its officials to come and take away the reptile. That may take hours,” said Bhati.
Arvind Parmar of the NGO, Wildlife Rescue Team had similar views on the circular. “The department doesn’t pay anything to volunteers. Yet it is the volunteers who have to suffer like this,” he said.
Lakshmi Tiwari, the only woman snake handler registered with the forest department, said that if a woman rescues a snake from a farm in the evening, she may have to wait for officials till late in the night. “Will the forest department take responsibility for her safety?” she said.
Assistant conservator of forests R K Patel said that the Wildlife Protection Act has been in existence since 1972. “It is just that we are implementing it now. We received complaints about snake handlers kissing snakes in an inebriated state. There were also allegations about the illegal sale of snake poison. In order to prevent illegal sale or hunting of the reptiles, we’ve devised this system of issuing cards,” said Patel.