Forest department with the rescued pythons.
Credit: Office of Forest Minister Eshwar Khandre.
Hubballi: Bhadravati forest officials are on the lookout for Mohammad Irfan, a self-proclaimed snake rescuer from Shivamogga, after he was caught on camera capturing two Indian rock pythons and covering their mouths with adhesive tape during a so-called ‘rescue’ on Mathur Road in Indiranagar, Shivamogga, on Monday.
Multiple videos of the incident show Irfan dragging the taped snakes along the road while his friends pose with the reptiles on their shoulders and pull them while sitting atop a car. The videos, reportedly shot on Monday, have gone viral across social media platforms.
Following the viral outrage, when Forest Minister Eshwar Khandre’s office alerted local forest officials, they raided Irfan’s house in Shivamogga and recovered three Indian rock pythons and two cobras— all scheduled-I species protected under the Wildlife Protection Act of 1972— kept in plastic bags.
On Tuesday, Khandre ordered strict action against the violators, emphasizing that they must be brought to book. His directive comes amid ongoing investigations into multiple research centres in Agumbe, accused of violating research permits and allegedly misusing snakes for commercial purposes.
Sources in the department revealed that forest officials had frequently relied on Irfan to rescue snakes in and around Shivamogga. On Monday, even when officials learned about the taped snakes and their captivity at Irfan’s house, they were unable to help immediately because they lacked expertise in snake handling.
Speaking to DH, Bhadravati Deputy Conservator of Forest Ravindra Kumar said Irfan went absconding after his videos went viral. “Efforts are underway to arrest him,” he added.
“We recovered five snakes—a male python, two female pythons, and two cobras—from his house in Sulebailu. Irfan had previously helped the department in rescuing snakes, but it is unclear why he was keeping them at home. It is an offence,” the officer said, adding that there was a delay in releasing the snakes back into the forest because ground staff didn’t know how to handle them.
“We had to call another snake rescuer to safely remove the adhesive tape from the reptiles,” he explained.
Senior officials in the department acknowledged that the lack of in-house expertise in human-snake conflict mitigation is one of the key reasons private snake rescuers like Irfan continue to operate unchecked.