KOCHI: Sixty-two-year-old Vidhya Raju, a wildlife rescuer for more than two decades and volunteer of the forest department, received a phone call on Sunday from a person from Poonithura requesting her to come and catch a venomous snake spotted at Gandhi Square Minipark.
It was a Russell’s viper. Residents noticed the snake crawling in the park. Many of them wanted to kill it, while others, including former councillor V P Chandran, said killing the snake was not the right decision. Later, it was decided to call Vava Suresh to catch the snake. When contacted, he saod he was in Thiruvananthapuram and requested to call someone from the nearby locality. It was then the contact number of Vidhya, who has caught over 1,000 snakes over the years and is approved by the forest department, was received. After much effort, she succeeded in putting the snake in a sack and handed it over to the forest department.