THE HINDU (Chennai, India) 09 September 08 Playing with snakes is fun for ‘Dragon’ Nisar (Abdul Latheef Naha)
Photo at URL below: Playing With Snakes: ‘Dragon’ Nisar (wearing cap) with a python he caught from his neighbour’s outhouse in Malappuram on Monday.
Snakes are toys for ‘Dragon’ Nisar. This youngster from Hajiyarpalli near Malappuram never misses a chance to tame a snake, no matter it is a cobra or a viper or a krate or a python. He just loves to play with snakes.
When he took out two pythons from his sacks on Monday, a large number of people, mostly children, gathered around him. Nisar was not making any show as he knew doing so would bring him trouble. But he explained to the little crowds about the specialties of pythons.
He caught one of the pythons from his neighbour’s house on Monday morning. The other, a smaller one, got trapped in his net while fishing in the Kadalundipuzha on Sunday night.
Although the crowds exulted at the large pythons, Nisar never looked excited. “It is a big head-ache. Catching a snake may be fun; but waiting for the authorities to turn up after informing them about the snake is, to be frank, painful,” he said.
But he never catches snakes for the sake of catching. He helps people frightened by the snakes by catching them.
He rarely displays the poisonous ones he catches. But when he gets a python, he makes use of the opportunity to educate the people about the importance of protecting wildlife.
He does not remember the number of snakebites that he has got. The riskiest bite he encountered was last year while swimming in the swollen Kadalundipuzha.
He loves to take challenges. Few others would have dared to swim across the swollen Kadalundipuzha when the whole of Malappuram was inundated last year. No sooner had he placed his hand on a floating log while swimming than an adder carried by the floods bit him. Undaunted, he caught the adder and swam across the river to safety holding the snake between his teeth.
“I am alive today only because I did not lose my courage,” he said.
His family, however, is afraid of the snakes as well as him. His mother said she was scared to go to his room with a broom. His father said he was crazy, but tried to hide his concern for his son.
‘Dragon’ Nisar is the man the people of Malappuram remember first when they sight a snake on their premises.
Nisar, without any hesitation or fear, would swoop down on the scene with bare hands, and the rest would be his job. And he has been praised by Forest Department officials several times for saving the lives of snakes.
Playing with snakes is fun for ‘Dragon’ Nisar