Rare python found in Mulshi

PUNE: A rare Indian Rock Python, found in the fields near Mulshi on Monday morning, was brought to the Sant Bahinabai Chaudhary garden and snake park at Akurdi in Pimpri-Chinchwad for treatment.
The python, an endangered species, which had swallowed a barking deer and was lying motionless, was first sighted early in the morning by some residents of Valne village, a few kilometres away from Mulshi.
While the villagers were first frightened at the sight, some of them contacted the members of the Friends of Nature Association in Talegaon-Dabhade. Six members of the association led by Kiran Mokashi and Nayana Abhale rushed to the site. While the villagers initially believed that the python had swallowed either a goat or a calf, it was later revealed that it had consumed a barking deer. It vomitted the deer, but in the process its horns caused an internal injury to the reptile, founder president of the Friends of Nature Association Mahesh Mahajan said.
The association informed the forest officials about the python and later with their permission took it to the Sant Bahinabai Chaudhary garden and snake park at Akurdi for treatment.
Director of the snake park Anil Khaire confirmed that the reptile found is an Indian Rock Python. "It suffered an internal injury for which treatment is being given," Khaire told TOI. PCMC's chief veterinary officer Dr Satish Gore is treatment the reptile. It will be kept under observation for the next four days. The python will be sent back to its natural habitat in the forest area near Mulshi, said Mahajan.