Rats! Where have all the snakes gone?

CHENNAI: It’s that time of the year when the animal rescue and rehabilitation centre in Velachery gets calls from residents who plead, shriek or yell at them to take away the snakes that have slithered into their homes during the rains. This year, however, the number of such calls has been fewer because of what wildlife officials call the “mass clearance” of reptiles over the last few years.
If that is good news, here is the bad news: Zoologists say if the snake population in the city is dwindling, it will lead to an increase in the population of rodents.
“Last monsoon till mid-November, we rescued more than 500 snakes from residential areas. This time, we have got only around 60. In comparison to the 20 to 25 calls we got every day last monsoon, we are now getting only four or five calls daily,” said S David Raj, forest ranger officer, Velachery. In the last three years, wildlife teams rescued more than 1,000 reptiles each during October to January.
This, he said, has brought down the number of snakes in the city. As city spreads and encroaches onto animal habitat, residents of newly-developed areas such as OMR, Nolambur and Porur have called wildlife officials to rescue reptiles and release them in areas far outside the city.
“This means that the rodent population in the city will go up, since snakes are their main predators,” said P Thangaraju, retired professor of the Tamil Nadu Veterinary and Animal Sciences University. “We need to find better methods to control the population of rodents and snakes. Residents should keep their surroundings clean to keep rodents away, and thereby snakes,” he said.
Forest officials say that when their nests get flooded after rains, snakes move out and seek shelter in buildings. Rampant urbanisation has also claimed the reptiles’ natural homes.
The city has a sizeable population of both venomous and non-venomous snakes, including cobras, kraits, vipers and rat snakes. It also has a good number of non-venomous water snakes. The animal rescue and rehabilitation centre was set up when many residents found creatures entering their homes. The centre has rescued pangolins, foxes, toddy cats, barn owls and snakes.