BENGALURU: Residents of Banashankari 5th Stage were a panicked lot on Monday when a 12-ft-long Indian Rock Python entered a compound and ate a dog. One of the residents said that around 1am, they heard a dog barking. When they came out to check, they found a snake. “The residents were shocked to see the snake. The residents of a house had a one-year-old dog. The snake had swallowed up this dog,” a resident said.
The residents panicked and were planning on killing the snake. However, one of the residents called up Prasanna Kumar, the BBMP’s wildlife rescuer and zonal head, who rushed to the spot to rescue the snake.
Kumar later said, “The snake must have come from Turahalli Forest. By the time I reached the spot, around 30 people had surrounded the snake and were trying to chase it away. They had planned to kill it. Surrounded by so many people, the snake got scared and threw up the dog. Unfortunately, the dog was dead by then.”
Kumar said that this was one the biggest snakes he had ever sighted in the city. He had to get additional equipment to rescue it. He said that the snake was extremely aggressive due to the number of people around it. “We had to ask people to calm down and keep them away from the snake, as it was very scared. Another rescuer Shoaib helped me rescued the python.”
Mohan, another BBMP wildlife rescuer, said, ‘The moment a snake is spotted, people should call wildlife rescuers instead of attacking it or trying to rescue it themselves.”The snake was taken to the BBMP forest cell where it was kept overnight. With the permission of Deputy Conservator of Forests (DCF) Cholaraju, the snake was released in Turahalli Forest on Monday.