PUDUCHERRY: A tense atmosphere prevailed at a local private school recently, when a student, while retrieving books from his bag during class, was startled to find a snake inside. He quickly dropped his bag, and fled the classroom, with his peers following suit.
Upon information from the teacher, the school principal promptly contacted the forest department for assistance. Two veteran animal keepers, Kannadasan and Velayudham, arrived at the scene to address the situation.
The former took out the three-foot-long reptile from the bag, and identified it to be a non-venomous rat snake.
Kannadasan noted the snake does not pose any immediate threat to humans, but it could bite in self-defense.
The snake might have crawled into the bag to escape the summer sun, Kannadasan speculated. It is common for snakes to seek out cool, damp places during this time of the year, he added.
Following its capture, the snake was safely transported to the animal farm at the forest department office in Mudaliarpet. After a brief period of observation, the rat snake would be released back into the forest, its natural habitat, said Kannadasan.