418 snakes rescued in two months

Chennai: In the last two months alone about 418 snakes have been rescued in the city with a majority of them being Indian cobra, rat snake and striped keel back. At M Block in Anna Nagar East last week, M Raghupathy Rajan was shocked to see a rat snake in the tube of his washing machine. A week before that, a cobra was found in his neighbour’s house curled up around a God’s portrait in their puja room. “This has become a major issue. We live very close to the Otteri Nallah. It is filled with unwanted bushes and that is where the snakes take shelter. We have complained to the Greater chennai corporation several times. But they claim that only the public works Departemnt can clean the nallah. The public works department has not responded to our complaint. We will take it up with the CM cell next,” he said. He added that they called up the fire and rescue services officials to help them. “This month alone, this was the fifth time we saw a snake in our home,” he said. .