[adrian]

Originally Posted by TrackDay

Saw this inside my cooking gas cage today and is located outside my work area.

Be very careful while handling those gas cylinders. The snakes have a habit of curling into the base of the gas cylinders (the gas cylinders are chained and stored on road sides) and people unknowingly have taken the cylinder along with the snake into the house.

So always tilt the gas cylinder and check the ledge on the base before taking the cylinder into the house.

[TrackDay]

Originally Posted by adrian

Be very careful while handling those gas cylinders. The snakes have a habit of curling into the base of the gas cylinders (the gas cylinders are .......
.... gas cylinder and check the ledge on the base before taking the cylinder into the house.

Sure will be more cautious next time . However the gas cylinders are never taken inside the house. There is a gas line from the cage outside the house into the kitchen.

Any idea what the snake could be ?

[adrian]

Originally Posted by TrackDay

Any idea what the snake could be ?

No idea. Would have made a guess if the snake was inside the skin But of course there are experts that could identify the snake by looking at the moulted snake skin.

As with snakes, it is not about what visited you. It is the understanding that there are snakes around and that I should be careful when treading out and picking up things.

[supremeBaleno]

Any idea what these snakes are? These were seen near our Chennai apartment. Someone said it could be Russels viper (which has been spotted earlier in the vicinity). Or are these just water snakes?

[jkrishnakj]

A very long one right behind our kitchen utility. We normally sight small ones on and off, but this was really a scare for us today.

Before we called for help, it slithered away.

[mallumowgli]

Originally Posted by supremeBaleno

Or are these just water snakes ?

I think you are pretty close - these look like buff striped keelback, a cousin of checkered Keelback or the neerkoli as we call in Malayalam. This one is called theyyaan or theliyan in Malayalam

Originally Posted by jkrishnakj

A very long one right behind our kitchen utility. We normally sight small ones on and off, but this was really a scare for us today.

Before we called for help, it slithered away.

Cant make it out - could be a rat snake

[Samurai]

I agree, first one is a keelback and second is a rat snake.

[deathwalkr]

Famous snake catcher Vava Suresh still in critical state. Been two days since he got bitten by a cobra.

I am no expert and if i see a snake i would run in the opposite direction so i am as clueless as they come about snakes.

But from what little i know shouldn't the focus of any catch be the head and not the tail? When i saw the video i was cringing hard and could visualize the bite that was coming :(

My kids love watching that show where a couple catch and release snakes in South Africa. And that sadly is the extent of my knowledge regarding snake catches.

Related news article (Photo in that is just a file pic)
https://www.onmanorama.com/news/kera...t-updates.html

The video can be found on YouTube and elsewhere.

[T.U.P]

Vava Suresh is an absolute idiot who has no idea on handling snakes, his only intention is to show off to the cameras and portray a macho charisma to the general public. What is even more worrying is I see a MASSIVE number of educated people watch his crap thinking he knows what he does.

For context, I work in a wildlife organization, and have also assisted with PROFESSIONAL rescues where all that needs to be done is to use a snake hook to guide the animal gently into a SPECIFIC snake bag. Snakes are never to be handled more than they absolutely need to, as this video by the Madras Croc Bank Trust demonstrates perfectly.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=scDGVAFVk4c

What Vava Suresh does is flail the poor snake around, pretend he's doing something heroic and earn more state fame. It is ABSOLUTELY unethical and I'm frankly surprised more people have not called him out on this (the wildlife community has tried its best).

[adrian]

While I agree on the view that the way by which Vava Suresh displays the caught snake before the media is not recommended for his safety as well as of the viewers, I would protest against him being called an absolute idiot due to the following reasons.

Vava Suresh was there for catching snakes when these scientific snake catchers were not around. That time he was seen riding around in a honda activa from one District to another. Then he didn't had this media following him. Some times he would have this wildlife photographer friend as his pinion rider and lots of snakes in the glove compartment of the scooter.

I had met him in person when a cobra visited my Sister's house and the dogs chased it and cornered it. My brother in law called Vava Suresh around 5pm and he said he is currently at about 80kms from our location and he will start right now.

He reached our location around 7pm and what a tracker he was - by observing the marking on the ground, in that low light condition - he described what all the snake did. He didn't get the cobra that day because it had entered an old layered stone wall and in his opinion, it was just like a tunnel system and the cobra was probably out of the compound by now. So his knowledge about snakes and his ability as a tracker are just unbelievable. He is a down to earth person and refused any payment and we had to forcefully give him petrol money after the distance he had traveled. That day the only person that accompanied him was the wild life photographer with an SLR camera and they left to another location on receiving a call - at that time of the day.

Gradually he became famous and the media caught up with him taking advantage of what he did as a passion and he began to get bitten.

In some media, Vava Suresh has made a remark that he is not using any equipment to catch the snake because it's skeletal system is very delicate and using equipment to squeeze down the snake will cause injury.

Now I don't know about the facts on the above statement, but I too am a great fan of Simon Keys and Siouxsie in the "Snakes in the City", by the way they use protective equipment and defensive approaches they take while catching snakes.

But then Vava Suresh is doing this by his passion and love of snakes. You can call him careless, but please don't call him an idiot.

[Unni]

As harsh as it might sound, vava Suresh sets extremely poor examples of snake handling and this has gone on for too long. It's disappointing that no one put a check on his antics even though the Kerala forest department has had excellent resources to handle snakes professionally.

Snakes and other dangerous creatures are one of the top risks in my area of work and I have had more than 15 training sessions on snakes, avoidance, handling, first aid, etc. from renowned experts in India and S. Africa (one from Mr. Whitaker himself, featured in the video posted by T.U.P). From whatever I have learned, almost everything vava does is against what a knowledgable snake handler should do. I don't know if he indeed made that comment about snake handling equipment, if true, that itself is a good example of his ignorance.

He might have other qualities as a human being, but that is not a good enough reason to put his and other people around him at grave risk. Not to mention the trauma he causes to the snake itself while "rescuing" it!

[am1m]

Glad to see some inputs from field herpetologists about these TV snake catchers. Always reminded of what the most eminent field herpetologist of them all (Rom Whitaker) used to call them - 'snake molesters'.

Sadly this 'handling' snakes for videos (TV or social media) has taken on a life of it's own. Cold-blooded reptiles are the easiest to abuse because they literally will run out of energy when harassed by these people posing as 'experts'. And nine times out of ten, the poor snake would have crawled away by itself without having to make a big production of the 'rescue'.

[T.U.P]

Originally Posted by adrian

In some media, Vava Suresh has made a remark that he is not using any equipment to catch the snake because it's skeletal system is very delicate and using equipment to squeeze down the snake will cause injury.

This is pure BS. No self respecting professional rescuer would make statements like this. His hands alone are far more dangerous to snake's skeletal systems than a snake hook, which (when used RIGHT) should be little more painful than a nudge. There are plenty of videos where he outright pins a snake's head to the ground or with his boots, causing potential nervous system damage.

Originally Posted by adrian

Now I don't know about the facts on the above statement, but I too am a great fan of Simon Keys and Siouxsie in the "Snakes in the City", by the way they use protective equipment and defensive approaches they take while catching snakes. But then Vava Suresh is doing this by his passion and love of snakes. You can call him careless, but please don't call him an idiot.

My apologies, but that is exactly what I am going to call him, especially when he has been sending the wrong message out to people for decades now. Herpetologists have spent almost the same amount of time fixing the screwups of people like him. He is a careless, dangerous idiot. This is not a love for snakes, it is purely a love for the camera and the fame. People have tried convincing me in the past but if this was true he wouldn't be on the ventilator for a THIRD time. One can only pray there isn't a fourth and final one.

[mallumowgli]

Originally Posted by T.U.P

This is pure BS. No self respecting professional rescuer would make statements like this. His hands alone are far more dangerous to snake's skeletal systems than a snake hook, which (when used RIGHT) should be little more painful than a nudge. There are plenty of videos where he outright pins a snake's head to the ground or with his boots, causing potential nervous system damage.

I think Vava Suresh is referring to the snake tongs. Just to clarify, the tong is not part of the equipment given to approved snake rescuers in Kerala by forest department. That was a deliberate misinformation by Vava Suresh. More dangerous than him is his blind fan base - as is always the case, these people never listen to reason

[adrian]

While agreeing 100% to the views that the methodology of capturing snakes by Vava Suresh is wrong, let me post some videos of the so praised Forest Departments capturing snakes. No offense to anyone but I just can't stand to see one person dragged in the dirt where everyone is equally at fault.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T0OoQt3Xvmc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mU4qCejRB7I

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SBKrktCCM-w

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rqI81ccoxpk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DvsTmBJ_6yk

And finally the classic

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bwuL1ubneHc