Rare buff striped keelback snake rescued from south Delhi colony

A rare buff striped keelback snake was rescued from a residential complex in south Motibagh, the NGO Wildlife SOS said on Thursday

A rare buff striped keelback snake was rescued from a residential complex in south Motibagh, the NGO Wildlife SOS said on Thursday. The snake was spotted by one the residents, who called the NGO’s 24-hour rescue helpline number, and the non-venomous snake was safely extricated and taken to a rescue facility. It will be kept there under observation, before being released into the wild, rescuers said.

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Wildlife SOS officials said the snake was in the garden, near the Sadhu Vaswani International School for Girls. Buff striped keelback is a mid-sized snake that can grow up to 80cm in length, though mostly they are under 60cm in length. While the non-venomous snake is found across Asia and south Asia, it is rarely spotted in Delhi, herpetologists said.

The NGO said as temperatures rise, chances of sighting snakes are more as they venture out in search of cooler spots. In another recent incident, an Indian cobra was rescued by the NGO after it was found coiled up on top of a gas cylinder at the Indiabulls Centrum Park campus in Gurugram’s Sector 103.

The NGO also rescued two baby cobras, one from a hostel at Jawaharlal Nehru University and the other one from a park in Mayur Vihar Phase-1. The rescue of a 5 foot long rat snake from near a dustbin in Dwarka Sector 14 rounded off an unusually busy week for the NGO, rescuers said.

Geeta Seshamani, co-founder and secretary, Wildlife SOS, said, “Wild animals enter urban settlements when their habitats are disturbed or encroached upon by rampant development. Wildlife SOS’ 24-hour rescue helpline receives regular calls from people reporting snake sightings in buildings, parks, college premises and homes. Our team is extremely well-trained in handling such delicate operations, and ensuring that the snakes are rescued without causing them any harm,” she said.