Study of tumbled snakes in open wells, a nightmare for snakes in western Maharashtra

Abstract

Open wells are earliest system to harvest ground water and still they are in practice. Generally, these openwells are not covered or protected. Wild species falls down in these open wells when they are chased bypredator species, when they are fighting with each other or accidentally fall down in these open wells.During the period of March, 2019 to June 2021, Animal Rahat teams rescued 41 snakes from wells andwater reservoirs. During the study period onlyfour species of snakes were found viz. Russell’s vipers,Indian Spectacled Cobras, Indian Rat Snakes and Red sand boas. Out of four species commonly tumbledsnake’s species are Russell’s viper, Indian Spectacled Cobra and Indian Rat Snake. Red Sand boa wasfound once in study period. Most of the time Russell’s viper snake fell down in the well during the studyperiod, i.e. out of total rescued snakes from well, Russell’s viper were more than 50 percent of them. Duringstudy period, snakes were fall down and rescued round the year from the wells, but more than 60% ofsnakes were rescued during summer season.