THE TELEGRAPH (Calcutta, India) 14 February 07 Dream rush for venom hunt - - Former Tata employee to go to South Africa to catch Cobra (Jayesh Thaker)
Jamshedpur, Feb. 13: Slimy and slithery, and the more the merrier. Nawal Kishore Singh’s passion for catching snakes is taking him places.
Singh, an ex-employee of Tata Steel, has been catching venomous snakes for nearly four decades. Now, he has bagged a coveted assignment of catching the deadly Golden Cobra on the South African turf.
The invitation has come from the anti-snake venom serum collection laboratory in Visakhapatnam, run by the Christian Medical College (CMC). The laboratory collects venom from snake catchers across the country, purifies them and sends them abroad for processing. Singh has been sending the venom of Black Cobras and Chittis to the CMC laboratory for a number of years now. He also owns a snake-breeding farm at Kuchai in West Singhbhum.
While the South African government has requested snake catchers from the CMC laboratory to catch the Golden Cobra, the laboratory, on its part, has selected Singh for the job.
“For me, the assignment is like a dream come true. I have encountered several snakes in my life but getting hold of the Golden Cobra has always remained a dream,” Singh told The Telegraph.
He added that he will lead a three-member team, including Ram Pravesh Rath (Orissa) and Susen Bannerji (Bengal), for the assignment. The necessary papers for the journey has already been sent, Singh further said, and the authorities are preparing the documents, including the visa, for the trip abroad.
Elaborating on the modus operandi, he added: “Unlike other snake catchers who wear gloves, I’ll do the job barehanded. I hope the reptile, which measure about 10 feet in length and are found in the rain forest near Centurion, will spit venom in anger as soon as I catch it by the tail and the team, which shall hold a glass container be able to store it. The venom will be useless if it falls on the ground.”
Singh further said the South African government will bear the expenses for the trip. “The CMC and the South African government share a professional relationship and the government has promised to pay my fees,” Singh, who has caught about 15,000 Black Cobras and Chittis so far, said.
Dream rush for venom hunt - - Former Tata employee to go to South Africa to catch Cobra