Aman Singh was 14 when he was captivated by the adventurous rescues performed by wildlife experts on the Discovery Channel and Animal Planet. Residing in Thane’s Lokmanya Nagar, which is in close to the Sanjay Gandhi National Park area, regular encounters with snakes during his teenage years further fostered his interest in wildlife and their behaviour. After multiple attempts at rescuing snakes and feeding the injured ones at home as an amateur, he decided to get trained and became a professional wildlife rescuer at just 18 years of age.

“I started by self-learning about techniques such as head catching a snake, among other things, and practiced that in real life. I was passionate but I realised there were many things I did wrong in terms of rescue operations,” says Singh, who joined Resqink Association for Wildlife Welfare (RAWW) in 2018 and soon carried out his first snake rescue operation as a trained professional. Covering Thane, Bhiwandi, Dombivli and the hilly areas of Yeoor, Singh, now 22 years old, attends to approximately 20 to 25 rescue calls a month during winters, and over 90 and 40 calls in the monsoon and summer seasons respectively.