Mangaluru: All of us, Scribes and staff, at the Newskarnataka office were both, aghast and agog, when the soft spoken but courageous Adithya Puthraya, aka Snake Freak Adithya, visited the office accompanied by a guest – an arms length Sand Boa!
Hello, hello!!!- everyone at the office greeted him warmly, and offered him the comfort of a chair and preliminary small talk. As the intimacy grew and all of us settled back down into our comfort zones, he hefted his back pack onto his lap, unzipped it and pulled out a Sand Boa commonly known in Dakshina Kannada termed as Irtale (two headed snake).
Amid the screams and the hasty retreats, he said he had captured it at a house near the TMA Pai hall, soon after he received a distress call from the residents.
Adithya was then at the receiving end of a volley of questions from all the journos present. “Where did you catch this sake? Will it bite? Is it venomous? Aren’t you scared? What will you do with it? Where will you release it? Have you fed the snake? What does it eat…?” He was patient with our ignorance, and answered patiently, in his soft spoken, measured baritone.
He said the Sand Boa is a calm snake, and does not get excited by human presence, it eats once in 15 days and goes after small prey like grasshoppers and other insects for its sustenance. So it won’t harm anyone. He said, he would release it in a safe habitat near Mangaluru.
He answered each and every question in simple language, satisfying curiosity, spreading awareness, and dispelling our fear of snakes, which he said, was his primary motive and the reason for the visit to the Newskarnataka office.
As the snake played hide and seek with him, writhing all over his hands and body, and his soothing voice explained the antecedents of the snake, gradually the fear among the scribes and staff, dissipated. Soon some ventured to hold the Sand Boa in their hands, which seemed totally unaffected by all the attention, flash photography and different hands venturing to hold it.
His primary objective achieved, Adithya went on to answer a range of questions on his passion and life.
A hobby that turned into a passion!
It all started, he said, as a hobby. It was at the age of 11 with the bite of snake, a checkered Keelback or Asiatic water snake. “I was miffed by the bite of the snake and reported the same to my father.” Adithya said that his father pacified him with the information that the snake was non-venomous. Following this, “I went in search of that snake and I caught it, and that’s how it began”. Gradually, he developed a deep and abiding interest in snakes, reading many tomes on the subject, honing his knowledge.
Growing popularity as a snake catcher
Snake freak Adithya, attributed his popularity to the social media, particularly facebook (FB). “In the initial days, I was posting pictures of every captured snake on my FB wall. Those were the days, that FB was a fad, and the pictures drew a huge response”. More and more people came to know of him and his passion, and calls started coming in to catch snakes lurking in their houses. His experiences helped him to catch more and more snakes, and he soon became an expert at it.
The 20 year old Adithya proudly said that he had caught approximately 2000-2500 snakes since he first started at the tender age of 11. He told us that he had captured most species common to this locality – Cobra, Russell’s viper,Rat Snake, Krait, Vine Snake, Strapped Keel Snake, Sand Boa and Indian Rock Python. He confessed though, that while he had held the Indian spectacled King Cobra (the largest venomous snake in the world), in his hands, his regret is that, he had not so far captured one on his own.
As we eagerly lapped up his every word (it was a new experience for us!), he told us that each species of snake must be caught in a different way leading us to wonder as to how he would determine which method was best to catch a snake – to which his answer was, knowledge is the key to recognition of the snake species before the catch is attempted.
He sounded a word of caution on snake bites though. He said each bite does require a different anti-venom, but in India by and large, a poly venom is used, which sometime results in a fatal reaction.
“Humans have built homes on snake territory”
He opined that fear drives people in cities to kill snakes, and admitted that it is the prevailing mind set among the older generation, but it’s time that changed. Aditya felt that it is here that the younger generation can make a difference. He said that when such a situation arises, the younger generation, armed with more information and a modern mindset, can intervene and involve snake catchers to prevent snakes being put to death.
Snakes, he said are Polycythemic (cold blooded) and hate heat. “Snakes usually emerge during the rainy season in search of mates and prey and along their way, they stray into houses sensing prey. In the Monsoon season I get maximum calls – 10 to 15 calls in a week, as against 3-4 calls, during other seasons.”
But he also had some advice for home owners. “To keep snakes away from your home, keep your house clean to avoid rats, rodents etc. After all, humans have built their homes on what was, earlier, their territory!. How they will feel if humans shun them now?”, he asked.
Alas! Snakes
He brought laughter to our desks, when he narrated a couple of incidents that occurred when he went about catching and transporting snakes. In one incident, while carrying a couple of rat snakes in his backpack, Snake Freak Adithya said, he had stopped at a Red traffic signal near the corporation office. While he was stationary, the snakes stuck their heads out the bag and surveyed the world around them, “Two bikers near to my RX-100 abandoned their bike and ran away as they saw a snake circling my neck”, he laughed. Afterwards, he was interrogated by the traffic police at the spot. They suspected that he was a snake smuggler, but learning he was a snake catcher, the police let him go.
A passion beyond snakes
While snakes define the man, Adithya’s passion goes beyond snakes and into the environment. He has set up an NGO, the ‘V 4 Wild Life foundation’ which performs many social and environmentally friendly activities, that mainly includes watering plants planted between dividers with the nod of the forest department, beech cleaning and wild life related workshops.
He told us enthusiastically, that soon he would set out on an expedition to the forests at Agumbe in search of a King Cobra to satisfy his urge to catch the deadliest snake of India.
Adithya also runs a trekking company, WhereNext?, which organizes trekking to many places across the district and outside for individuals, groups and corporates.
Adithya’s plea to all of us, as he hefted his back pack, was “don’t hurt snakes, catch them and release them in safe habitats”.
He can be reached at : 8123455500
Check-out Adithya Puthraya Photos:
