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Wildbuzz: Caught between a cobra & corona
The Chandigarh forest and wildlife department rescue team faces a ticklish situation. The team is receiving distress calls from residents, who have spotted a serpent in their homes
The Chandigarh forest and wildlife department rescue team faces a ticklish situation. The team is receiving distress calls from residents, who have spotted a serpent in their homes. These are predominantly Spectacled cobras, while other species include Rat snakes, vipers and Checkered keelbacks. However, some residents are in dilemma. They are apprehensive that a team comprising two or three snake wranglers may import the dreaded Coronavirus when they come in to search their homes for the fugitive serpent.
Wearing masks and observing Covid-19 protocols, the team members do present a surreal spectacle. They have to patiently explain to residents that risks of transmitting the virus are non-existent as they are free of the contagious disease. But the depth of Corona paranoia, which has wormed its way deep into the minds of residents, cannot be underestimated. It is akin to a terror of invisible ghosts. Serpents hiding in a house similarly invoke a fear of unseen ghosts that can lurk and lunge from any dark crevice.
“Such residents ultimately resolve their dilemmas and let us search the premises as they cannot bear the presence of the serpent. Due to undisturbed conditions and reduced presence of humans, snakes are moving around and crossing deserted streets and lanes more frequently. The undisturbed conditions lull them into venturing into homes and bedraggled gardens,” a team member told this writer.
Salim Khan, the tricity’s veteran snake-rescue personnel, too, has his hands full with unprecedented complications. The most interesting case was of a man who found a snake in his stationary car’s engine. The man had no permission to drive the car but he was able to clear the ‘nakas’ by warning cops that a serpent was hiding right under the bonnet and that he was desperate to reach Khan for its removal. Cops duly accorded the speediest clearance!
EVERY DAY IS A MONDAY
Chandigarh Golf Club president Sandeep S Sandhu remarks in jest that “every day is a Monday for wildlife at our club!” Mondays were days in the BC (Before Covid) era when the club was shut down for maintenance and animals and peacocks would wander lazily on fairways. Going a step further, the club’s assistant course manager Surjit Singh describes the animal invasion during the Covid-19 curfew as one where “creatures have gained azaadi (freedom) and the lush greens, groves and fairways are serving as an extension of the jungles.”
The highlight was a majestic Neelgai bull strolling along and up the fairway of the 18th hole towards the locked club house. The undisturbed bull’s pace was remindful of slow golfers who couldn’t care less for players behind them and long awaiting their turn at the shot with peevish patience and fraying tempers! On some days during the curfew, 40-50 Neelgais come and sit around the 12-13th hole complex and nibble at the soft grass, which, for them, is a welcome change from the adjoining jungle’s hardy, stale and thorn-protected flora.
“We had an unusual intruder, a wild boar, who started digging the area next to the 13th hole green for roots and tubers. I asked my staff to spread naphthalene balls to drive away the boar as it reacts adversely to such odours. That ruse worked well,” Sandhu told this writer.
The scourge of boars ripping greens is manifest at the Army’s Shivalik Golf Club (SEPTA), Chandimandir. After having tried all methods, and on the then Western Army commander’s advice, the SEPTA management had once ordered jawans to store their urine in plastic bottles. The bottles were strung on green fringes. For some time, marauding boars coming in at night smelt the urine, suspected human presence and beat an inglorious retreat. But pugnacious creatures as they are, the boars soon smelt a proverbial rat and the urine ruse did not work after that.
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