New Delhi (NVI): The severe cold in Delhi, experienced over the last few days, affected not only the humans but the reptiles too.
According to NGO Wildlife SOS, at least seven snakes were detected in residential areas at various places across the national capital where they had gone to escape the biting cold.
Six cobras have been rescued from Delhi since last Friday – one was curled up inside a farmhouse in DLF Chattarpur, another from a makeshift kitchen in a shanty, one was found sunbathing on a sunny day in a park in Dwarka sector 22, it said.
Apart from this, the NGO also rescued a couple of royal snakes from warm spots – engines, motors and empty spaces within house walls.
All the snakes were kept under temporary observation and later released into safer habitats once deemed fit.
It said a team of expert Wildlife SOS rescuers is ready 24 hours seven days a week with the required thermal equipment to ensure no animal suffers from the cold.
Wildlife SOS, Co-founder and CEO Kartick Satyanarayan said, “Our Rapid Response teams have been kept constantly busy because of the rising number of rescue calls. The most number of calls we are getting are for snakes. As they are cold-blooded animals, they are extremely vulnerable to the cold.”
He noted that snakes cannot modulate their body temperature like other mammals and need external heat sources to survive.
Wildlife SOS Conservation Projects Director, Baiju Raj M.V said, “There’s an unusually severe cold wave running through the northern part of India at the minute that has claimed the lives of many animals around the country.”
With Delhi in the throes of the coldest winter witnessed in over a century, the rise in the number of rescue calls is attributed to the paralyzing effects of the biting chill, he said.
“Snakes don’t perceive humans as food and they don’t aggressively bite things out of malice, so they were just looking for some warmth and comfort,” he added.
