Bhubaneswar: A highly poisonous bamboo pit viper snake was rescued from the densely populated Bapuji Nagar in the city on Tuesday.
The snake was spotted crawling on a tree in front of a furniture shop in the area. The manager of the shop, Lalit Acharya, who has fair knowledge about the snakes, could not identify the snake but could know that it was not normally found in the city. He took a photograph of the snake with his mobile phone and sent it to secretary of Snake Helpline Subhendu Mallik.
On identifying the snake as bamboo pit viper, Subhendu rushed to the spot. By the time he arrived, another snake catcher Basant Das had caught hold of the snake and kept it in a plastic bottle. But he was not allowed to go with it by the locals as he was not a member of the Snake Helpline.
Subhendu, who took possession of the snake from Das, said he would release it in presence of Forest officials in Chandaka forest on Wednesday.
He said though bamboo pit viper is a poisonous snake, nobody has died due to its bite so far. But its poison can cause serious health problems as there is no anti-venom treatment against it in the country.
Expressing his surprise how the bamboo pit viper came to a populated area, he said these snakes are normally found in deep forest. He suspected that it might have got transported in some vehicle from Chandaka forest to Bapuji Nagar.
