The journey of Gurugram’s female snake rescuer

Raghavan moved to Malibu Town in Sector 47 in 2018. Since then, she has rescued hundreds of snakes across the city, earning a reputation as Gurugram’s only woman snake rescuer.

When a snake is sighted in a housing society or neighbourhood, people usually panic, they rush indoors, shut doors, a few people gather with sticks and a general sense of fear takes over. However, for 49-year-old Jyoti Raghavan, snake sightings are an ordinary part of her life.

Jyoti Raghavan. (HT PHOTO)

Raghavan moved to Malibu Town in Sector 47 in 2018. Since then, she has rescued hundreds of snakes across the city, earning a reputation as Gurugram’s only woman snake rescuer.

Her journey as a rescuer, she said, began nearly 15 years ago, while she was living in Dwarka, Delhi. According to Raghavan, one winter afternoon, she heard people shouting “snake” repeatedly in her society. “When I went to check, I saw a majestic cobra being beaten with sticks. It had taken shelter under a maze of plastic pipes, trying to soak up some sun,” she said. “To be killed just for being a snake seemed extremely unjust to me.”

With no training or prior experience, Raghavan said she made a decision that changed her life. “I announced that I am going to rescue the cobra. And I actually managed to,” she said. She used a sack and a bamboo stick to guide the cobra inside and later released it safely in a forest. “I was armed with nothing but conviction,” she said, adding that the rescue wasn’t about bravery, but about empathy.

A similar incident unfolded years later after she shifted to Gurugram. This time, she said, it was a harmless wolf snake that had gotten tangled in a moss stick in her garden. Neighbours watched, anxious and unsure, but she stepped in and rescued the snake. “One thing led to another and rescues became a part of my life,” she said.

Over the years, Raghavan has rescued at least nine snakes, ranging from cobras, rat snakes to blind snakes and Russell’s kukri.

“On December 28, I rescued my first python. It had been wandering around Suncity colony, looking for a safe spot, having lost its home to development,” she said, adding that the python was later released in Mangar, a forested patch that has become one of the last remaining natural patches around Gurugram.

“The only challenge I face is from humans who see snakes as enemies and kill them at the first sight. Snakes are our balance keepers. If we lose them all, the rat population would increase manifold and soon it will be mayhem,” she said.

She said that rescuing snakes in a crowded space creates a lot of pressure as there are a lot of people watching. “You need to remain calm and focused when everyone around you is panicking or making videos,” she said. She has educated herself over time on venomous and non-venomous species, she said, adding that identification isn’t always easy at the moment. “Snakes are highly sensitive to energy and can tell if you are trying to help or trying to cause harm,” she said.

“It is not really about men or women. It is more about your conviction,” she said. “I firmly believe that this is a shared planet and animals have an equal right to it gives me courage to do this.”

Vaishali Rana, a Gurugram-based environmentalist, said, “In a city where fear often turns into violence, Jyoti’s rescues are a reminder that coexistence is possible. She is not just saving snakes, she is saving Gurugram from losing its ecological sense.”