Five snakes rescued in Agra in one day

A nearly five-foot-long Indian Rat snake has been rescued from the Agra Jail Superintendents residence inside the prison premises. It was one of the many snakes sighted and rescued in the Taj city amid continued rain activity.

Located inside the District Jail premises in Khandari, the Wildlife SOS Rapid Response Unit rescued the snake that was deemed fit to be released back into its natural habitat.

It was eventful morning for police officers inside the district jail premises on Monday, when they discovered the snake inside the police guard room near the entrance gate of the superintendent's residence.

A two-member team from the wildlife conservation NGO was soon deployed to the location to carry out the rescue operation.

Soon afterwards on the same day, another rat snake was rescued from Parents Pride Public School located in Pashchimpuri.

A 5-foot-long Indian Rock Python was rescued from the store room of a house in Bainpur, Sikandra.


The SOS team also rescued a venomous Cobra from Khanna Petrol Pump in Runakta and an Indian Wolf snake from Sacred Mother Junior School in Kamla Nagar here. All the snakes were deemed fit and later released back in the forest.

Kartick Satyanarayan, Co-Founder and CEO of Wildlife SOS, said, "We are extremely grateful to the police officers at the District Jail for alerting us. Timely intervention helped us save the rat snake and release it in a safe habitat. Rat snakes are often mistakenly believed to be venomous, because of its similarity to the Cobra snake and typically large size, but in reality, they are non-venomous and primarily feed on rodents, birds and small mammals, and is a commonly sighted snake in and around urban settlements."

Baiju Raj, M.V, Director Conservation Projects for Wildlife SOS, said, "Our team has rescued two rat snakes in the last two days from District Jail premises. Since, it has been raining in Agra, there is an increase in snakes and monitor lizards being sighted in urban settlements. We request people to keep supporting our cause and report such incidents on our helpline. Our team works day and night to rescue wild animals in need - IANS