The city’s own snake catcher Vava Suresh is set to go ‘global’ with Animal Planet planning a documentary on the 38-year-old. The shooting will take place on Monday, the channel officials said. The crew flew down here on Sunday and will travel along with Suresh to understand the ways in which he catches snakes.
“We have not yet fixed any format for the programme since we are only exploring Suresh’s routine. He is one of two Indians selected for this documentary series for Animal Planet,” said the director of documentary George Kurian. He did not disclose the identity of the other candidate. The channel came to know about Vava Suresh through Facebook and YouTube.
Suresh, who lives at Sreekariyam, has been flooded with phone calls ever since the news broke, but he is not ready to take a break from his job to celebrate the event. As usual, he was busy capturing snakes and conducting lectures on venomous reptiles.
During a ‘career’ with snakes spanning three decades, he has got bitten more than 250 times, once so seriously that the middle finger of his left hand had to be amputated.
He was put on ventilator twice and spent time in the ICU four times. Considering his service, the state government even offered him a job in the Forest Department, which he declined, saying that it may prevent him from serving the society.
Suresh started capturing snakes at the age of twelve when he caught a small cobra and kept it at his home to observe its behaviour.
Suresh claims that since then, he has trapped more than 30,000 snakes, of which 38 were king cobras. “I think 24 hours in a day is not enough to attend to all the cases which come to me. Still, I try my level best to reach as many places as possible each day. I have travelled to Kanyakumari, Palakkad and even Athirapally to catch snakes,’’ he says.