We were returning after celebrating Aasim birthday party – as we rounded a corner we saw a Tata Sumo parked in middle of the road and a few people gathered around as Swati cautiously steered around – We saw a glimpse of a snake Swati slowed and I recognized it immediately. It was a Russell’s Viper! I was out of the car even before the car halted.
Russell’s Viper belongs to the genus Daboia. Daboia is a monotypic genus created for a venomous viper species, D. russelii, which is found in Asia throughout the Indian subcontinent, much of Southeast Asia, southern China and Taiwan. Within much of its range, this species is easily the most dangerous viperid snake and a major cause of snakebite injury and mortality. It is a member of the big four venomous snakes in India, which are together responsible for nearly all Indian snakebite fatalities. The species was named in honor of Dr. Patrick Russell (1726 – 1805), who had earlier described this animal, and the genus after the Hindi name for it, which means “that lies hid”, or “the lurker.” Two subspecies are currently recognized.*
As I neared the the crowd – I could already hear talks of get stones and sticks. I hurried and said in a loud enough voice to be heard by everyone “Get back this is a very poisonous snake” I must have sounded convincing and people moved a little back. It did cross my mind that the last time I held this snake all on my own was nearly 10 years ago… but by then I was working on reflex. I don’t really recall what I did but Swati tells me that I just walked up to the snake looked at it for a second, picked it up by the tail, pinned the head with my foot, bent down and gently gripped just behind the head, picking it up.
As I moved towards the car Aasim was already out holding the door open for me to sit. It was at this moment that Swati and Aasim realized what I had caught 😉 Our first excited reaction was lets take it home for a few photographs but as we drove on a bit we rationalized that it would be too stressful for the poor snake so we drove up to the jungle nearby and released it but not before Swati had clicked it using her E71 phone.