East Midnapore: 28 Monocled Cobras seized by Forest dept

Kolkata: The state Forest department recently made an extra-ordinary rescue operation as they found a total of 28 Monocled Cobras sealed in earthen pitchers from two villages in East Midnapore.

Acting upon a reliable source information, a team comprising 10-12 forest officials from the Bajkul Range of East Midnapore Forest Division conducted a raid operation in two marginal villages namely Gajipur and Damodarpur under Chandipur Police Station area in Nandigram III Block and arrested two persons for catching snakes and selling them off illegally.

Certain residents dwelling in four houses of this area were accused of catching snakes and selling them off. According to sources, the Forest department in a collaborative raid operation with Chandipur Jib Boichitro Sangrakshan Mancha divided them into three separate teams. The first team went to Sudarshan Singh’s house located at Gajipur village under Brindabanpur-II Panchayat. Singh was once renowned for his ability to catch snakes, although he has discontinued the profession for some terrible illness since the last few years. Currently, his wife Jyotsnarani Singh catches snakes as a profession. On active intervention from the departmental officers, Jyotsna gave out 12 earthen pitchers, each of which contained one adult Monocled Cobra. The rest of the two forest teams went to Damodarpur village, under Ishwarpur Panchayat, adjacent to the Gajipur village. There they raided the houses of Uttam Das and Sukumar Bar. The wife of Uttam Das gave out 10 similar earthen pitchers, containing one adult Monocled Cobra each.

Two more Monocled Cobras in bamboo baskets were rescued from Sukumar’s house. Jyotsnarani Singh and Sukumar Bar were arrested and all the pitchers with snakes were seized. The snakes were kept in bad condition in small enclosed pitchers that were most likely to be suffocating for these reptiles.

During preliminary questioning, they confessed that they had caught the animals from a nearby locality and used to sell to buyers from different parts of the state. The police and departmental officers are suspecting the case to be related to the smuggling of snake poison.

The Monocled Cobra known as ‘Gokhro’ in Bengali, is a venomous cobra species widespread across South and Southeast Asia and listed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List.