Mumbai: Receding floodwater leaves behind venomous guests

The receding rainwater in VasaiNalasoparaVirar has left behind plenty of dangerous unwanted guests Fire officials said they have been rescuing about 10 venomous and semivenomous snakes daily from these areas over the past few daysldquoSnakes have started to sneak into residential areas warehouses and open spaces as floodwater has started recedingrdquo a fire official told middayDilip Palav the chief fire officer of Vasai Virar City Municipal Corporation VVCMC said ldquoOn an average our staff is catching 10 snakes daily Snakes come out of their holes on two occasions when the temperature is extreme and when the area gets waterloggedrdquoldquoWe have captured 150 snakes in the past 10 days The species include Cobra the Russellrsquos viper and ratsnake dhaman We had captured a lot of snakes during summer in May as well Palav saidAll the rescued snakes have been released into the Tungareshwar jungle said another fire officialVirar resident Robin Drsquomello was surprised by a venomous snake in the courtyard of his house on Saturday ldquoI immediately called the fire brigade and they came and caught the snake The officials said it was Russells viperAlso read Mumbai Kurla society told to vacate over work on adjacent plotOn Saturday alone fire officials caught 16 venomous and semivenomous snakes at different locations in Vasai Nalasopara and VirarOn Monday another Russellrsquos viper was caught from a warehouse of food grains in Vasai East ldquoMy area was completely waterlogged on Sunday I opened my warehouse the next day and noticed a snake I called the fire brigade and they reached within 10 minutes and caught itrdquo said Jinay Shah the ownerAkhilesh Rai a Vasai resident said that at a few locations snakes were seen slithering through the waterlogged roadsVishal Shirke the incharge of Virar fire brigade said ldquoOn getting calls about snake sightings we leave everything aside to catch the reptiles as we cannot afford to get late to such a situationrdquoAnother fire official Satguru Dicholkar from Achola Road fire brigade said that in some cases snakes get inside a hole or hide somewhere ldquoThen we have to struggle hard to catch itMost of the fire officials are busy looking for a fouryearold boy from the Nalasopara area who has been missing since Sunday after falling into an open drain ldquoBut we have kept a few fire officials on standby as snake menace is very common in floodaffected areas Our officials are also assisting in managing the traffic as trees have blocked roads at a few locationsrdquo said a fire officialAlong with sightings snakebites also become common in floodhit areas VVCMC official Ganesh Patil said ldquoLast month nine cases of snake bites were reported All of them were given antivenom medicines at the hospitals The data for July will be updated by the end of monthrdquo