Everything in between the rescue and the release

This Writing piece of mine will focus on a specific rescue and release of a juvenile Common Sand Boa snake and everything we did in between for this gorgeous little ambush hunter.

The Common Sand Boa is also known by other names such as - Russell's Boa, the Rough-scaled Sand Boa or the Rough-tailed Sand Boa. The scientific name of this snake is (Eryx conicus) and it belongs to the subfamily Erycinae of the family Boidae. The Sand Boa is a non-venomous snake that can be easily misidentified at first glance for either the Indian Python (Python molurus), which is much stronger than the Sand Boa or the deadly Russell's viper (Daboia russelii). This happens since the colour pattern of the Common Sand Boa resembles the colour pattern of the other two snakes, which some herpetologists believe is a case of Batesian Mimicry. An adult Sand Boa can attain the size of 3.3 feet (99 cm).

A lady patient came rushing into the Kasturba Medical College (KMC) Hospital, terrified for life. She was impatiently looking for a doctor as she had been bitten by a snake, before which she had stepped on unknowingly. She met with Dr Vrinda, a doctor at KMC and also a true nature and wildlife enthusiast. When the lady was asked about the snake, Dr. Vrinda got extremely anxious since the description of the snake given, was of a deadly one and this meant the end of the lady patient. The patient mentioned that they had held the victim snake captive in a bucket at their residence. Hearing this, Dr Vrinda and her team along with the patient hurried to the bucket's location and finally, Dr Vrinda’s face had a scant smile right after glimpsing at the slitherer and confirming what she was looking at, was just a juvenile Common Sand Boa and not the lethal Russel’s Viper. As she examined the snake a little more closely, she figured out that the snake had an injured tail due to the stamp impact and took the harmless individual into her care.

The wounded Boa took refuge at the doctor’s home, where it could take time to heal without the threat of falling prey in the theory of ‘The Survival of the fittest’.

Dr Vrinda had invited me and a few other nature and wildlife enthusiasts and photographers to go and observe the quiet release of the snake.

After the snake had healed, it was time to release it back into the wild. It was planned to show the snake to the students of a local daycare the same evening, to spread awareness about snakes in general and bring in a sense of curiosity into the young minds.

As we approached the daycare we were welcomed by a dozen of excited, curious and eager children who were chirping around like early birds around the snake asking questions that typical children would, A lad of 6 years or so asked me if it was alright to bite a snake back if it bit you first another girl squatted in a corner was wondering if snakes have bad manners since they bite, the most talkative one was constantly telling about the snake encounters he had in his dreams in which the snake was in the colours of the rainbow and its bite could bring back the dead. It took us a good 15 minutes to settle down all the kids and we could talk to them regarding the importance of snakes in the environment, the significance of knowing to differentiate and identifying the snakes in their region, first aid in case of snake bites and showing them the identification marks on our Common Sand Boa.

Later, a few of the extremely passionate kids joined us at the spot of the release, where they observed their first snake release, obeying the instructions to keep silent and a safe distance from the juvenile Boa. 

As we went back to the vehicle, the kids and us rejoiced the successful release during which, a student enthusiastically mentioned he wants to become a snake rescuer in the future. It felt more than satisfying to know the positive impact this release had on the minds of the young conservators.