GUWAHATI, May 22 - A two-day regional workshop on best practices for mitigating human-snake conflict in North-east India was organised by Wildlife Trust of India (WTI) and International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) at Manas National Park on May 19 and 20 as part of the formation of the Indian Snake Rescuers Network (ISRN) which falls under the aegis of the Emergency Relief Network (ERN) Project of IFAW-WTI.
The ISRN, which was launched for the first time in North-east India at this regional workshop, aims to bring all people involved with the rescue and rehabilitation of snakes, on a common platform for learning, information sharing, and ensuring that a standard set of guidelines are followed to mitigate human-snake conflict. Network members are also given access to a mobile app that has been specially designed to document each and every snake that is captured.
�This is one of the major steps towards setting up a national level snake rescue network and ensuring the safety of snakes and people across India. As snake rescue is the first line of defence to reduce human-snake conflict, training and equipping the regional snake rescuers will help us reduce human deaths too,� added Jose Louies, Chief of Wild Enforcement and Law, WTI.
The workshop, conducted by Dr Abhijit Das, Wildlife Institute of India (WII), Soham Mukherjee from Ahmedabad, Jose Louies, Chief of Wildlife Enforcement and Law, WTI and Abhishek Narayanan, Head of Wild Rescue, WTI, was attended by 20 participants from various districts of Assam and included individuals, NGO representatives, Forest department staff and two staff members from the Ecological Task Force (ETF) of the Indian Army based in Kokrajhar.
The workshop was aimed to reduce wrong practices often followed in rescue work, which not only compromise the welfare and conservation of snakes, but also increase the risk for the rescuer. Topics included basic taxonomy of snakes; handling, capture and transport of snakes; legal considerations relevant to snake rescue; snake-bite management, etc.
