CHENNAI: Reptiles, especially snakes, have fascinated me since childhood and I grew up gathering knowledge on these wonderful creatures. I’ve had opportunities to interact and work with snake experts during which I was educated on identification of snakes, handling them, myths surrounding them, precautions to be taken, first aid etc.
Snakes have been portrayed as evil and as revenge seeking creatures since ages even in mythological stories which has created a sense of fear among humans and hence at the very first sight of snakes, man destroys them.
In many ways, snakes serve a valuable function for human societies. They prey on animals, such as rats and mice that we often regard as pests. On the other hand, many people have a terrible fear of these reptiles. They may believe that the only good snake is a dead snake. Unfortunately, this attitude leads to the death of many harmless snakes. Yet, as much as most humans fear snakes, snakes fear humans more. Certainly, some snakes can kill a human in a matter of minutes, and no snake should be handled unless positively identified as harmless.
Overall, a well-educated, healthy respect for snakes would benefit both humans and snakes. Let’s start with destroying some common myths:
Myth: Snakes attack human beings.
Fact: Snakes attack only when humans accidentally step on them or when they get the feeling that they are attacked by human beings.
Myth: Snakes drink milk.
Fact: Snakes hate milk and it is scientifically proved that when snakes are forced to drink milk they get sick.
Myth: Snakes listen and move their hood as per the music by a charmer.
Fact: Snakes cannot hear music. It just follows the movement of the snake charmer which forces the snakes to move their hood in a particular movement.
Myth: Snakes when hurt would definitely come back to take revenge.
Fact: It is scientifically proved that the brain of a snake is not much developed therefore it has absolutely no memory to take revenge.
Myth: If a snake bitten person in turn bites the snake, the poison would go away from the body of the victim.
Fact: If the victim takes the risk of biting the snake, the snake would only attack the victim again and this would only result in the snake injecting all its poison into the body of the victim which would in turn result in quick death.
Myth: Snakes have supernatural powers and a golden coloured snake has diamond in its mouth.
Fact: Snakes are ordinary creatures just like other animals or other reptiles and have no supernatural powers. Snakes do not have diamonds in their mouth; it is just a fantasy and a story formovies.