Meet Mumbai’s snake whisperer in khaki

The Discovery Channel team captures Murlidhar Jadhav in action in Kalyan

The Discovery Channel will shine the spotlight on a Mumbai police constable who has been rescuing snakes for nearly two decades. Murlidhar Jadhav, who is attached to the DCP Zone 5 office, was recently approached by documentary filmmakers who wished to highlight his daring activities.

Interestingly, Jadhav had no inclination towards catching serpents, until he was bitten by a cobra when he was eight and family members had to run from pillar to post as anti-venom was not available in his village Lohara in Jalgaon's Pachora taluka.

"It was then that I decided that I would capture snakes to prevent villagers from getting bitten. In fact, within a fortnight from my discharge, I ended up catching a cobra and that too without any formal training or scientific knowledge about trapping reptiles," Jadhav told mid-day.

Catching snakes became an extracurricular activity for Jadhav, but in his teen years, his worldview was drastically changed after coming across Rajesh Thombre, a professional snake rescuer from Chalisgaon - a village located 300 km from Pune.

Also read: Mumbai: 15-foot-long Indian rock python rescued from Bhandup area

"The knowledge shared by Thombre Sir helped me to understand how to identify venomous and non-venomous species. I also learned how to catch snakes using methods that pose minimum risk to rescuers and trauma to reptiles," Jadhav said.

"It was then that I realised that catching snakes was naïve and wrong. Rescue is the appropriate way to prevent snake-human conflict as the existence of reptiles is important for the ecology," he added.

Cut to the present. The constable on an average gets two to three snake rescue calls almost every day. "Snake calls have increased in the wake of Metro construction work, especially around Bandra Kurla Complex," Jadhav said.

The Kalyan resident was taken aback when he received a call from a team from the Discovery Channel asking for an interview and permission to shoot him in action. "The team visited Kalyan and for three to four days, they followed me around. The team members captured snake rescue operations. The documentary is likely to be telecasted in the next few months," the constable said.