The SNAKE GOD of India

Rattling Hiss of the deadly cold-blooded killers is probably the most feared sound out there. Humans often fear what they don’t understand and to most, snakes are a mystery. Snakes rely on Crypsis so even when traversing through their world, we rarely see them. From childhood, we are told stories about snakes, stories that are filled with a paroxysm of hatred against them, from "The Jungle Book" to "Harry Potter", snakes are usually portrayed as villainous and bad. All this creates a misunderstanding and fear against these intriguing animals.

All this fear has led to the whole species of snakes coming close to extinction cause whenever we see these sinister animals, our first approach is to kill them. We ruin their habitats and homes for our selfish reasons and then blame them for coming near us.

Amid all this, a man has taken the heroic initiative to save snakes from being killed by humans. Mukhtar Ali, a painter from Uttarakhand saves around 1000 snakes every year from brutal killing by humans. He may paint homes and walls as his day job but his passion clearly lies somewhere in saving snakes.

In the past year, he has saved at least 1000 snakes that are spotted in the urban areas. He says, "I am just a public servant who goes to ensure that people don't kill these innocent snakes."         

He doesn't charge any money for all this and does it just for the sake of humanity towards snakes, even after doing so much he still manages to keep "humbleness at its peak."

Till now, he has left saved several species of snakes such as "Krait", "Black Cobra", "Manacled Cobra", "Python" "Russel Viper" etc. He ensures that all these snakes are safely dropped deep inside their natural habitat. As “Luck favours the bold", Mukhtar's friend who also introduced him to the world of reptiles and snakes, helps Mukhtar financially.

He does most of his work during the monsoon season where most snakes get displaced from their safe habitats into the urban mess. He preaches around everywhere he goes that please don't kill these snakes, instead protect them.

What started just as a starting as passing interest has now turned into a burning passion and now more than ever we need more Mukhtar's like this to save our beloved animals whom we worship.

Post curated by Krishna