Snake Prakash
Life on land
DONATE
YOU CAN SUPPORT CREATIVE COWBOY FILMS BY DONATING
Your support will assist us to continue our research and content development, the greater our resources, the more we can do.
The more we have an accurate understanding of what is happening to nature, the more we can all do to protect what remains of our living planet.
This is also an opportunity for philanthropists to be part of an ongoing project that tells independent stories about the natural world, stories that will help us to better understand what is happening to species and places on our precious planet Earth.
Note: Creative Cowboy Films does NOT have tax deductible charity status.
Become a Member
Becoming a member of Creative cowboy films The Nature Knowledge Channel is a very real way you can help the precious natural world and support the work we do in creating knowledge about what is happening to it.
Membership
You can access thiscontent and other stories by becoming a member or donating
Sign up NowBecoming a member of Creative cowboy films
The Nature Knowledge Channel is a very real way you can help the precious natural world and support the work we do in creating knowledge about the natural world.
Annual membership of the Creative cowboy films - Nature Knowledge Channel gives you full access to content, stories and films, available on this website. Becoming a member of the Creative cowboy films - Nature Knowledge Channel is a very real way you can help the natural world and support our work in creating a greater understanding about what is happening to it.
A point of difference
Creative cowboy films is independent, is not funded by governments or industry, and is not influenced by their associated interest groups. For reasons of independent research and content development, Creative cowboy films does NOT have tax deductible charity status.
"On a leisurely afternoon drive around Mysore we spot Snake Prakash on his rounds."
This is some text inside of a div block.
This is some text inside of a div block.
This is some text inside of a div block.
This is some text inside of a div block.
This is some text inside of a div block.
This is some text inside of a div block.
This is some text inside of a div block.
This is some text inside of a div block.
This is some text inside of a div block.
This is some text inside of a div block.
This is some text inside of a div block.
This is some text inside of a div block.
This is some text inside of a div block.
This is some text inside of a div block.
This is some text inside of a div block.
This is some text inside of a div block.
This is some text inside of a div block.
This is some text inside of a div block.
This is some text inside of a div block.
This is some text inside of a div block.
This is some text inside of a div block.
It is a hot day in Mysore, the sun shines on the gardens and the balconies of the houses, all just perfect for snakes. India has more than ten per cent of the world’s snake species with something like twenty per cent of these venomous enough to worry about.
Catching snakes
The King Cobra at a maximum length of just under six metres is the most spectacular. Hard to imagine today but in its range, which also includes South East Asia, the heaviest wild King Cobra recorded was at Singapore’s Royal Island Club in 1951.
Smaller but rather more active snakes in human habitats in India include the Common Krait, the Indian Cobra, the Saw-scaled Viper and Russell’s Viper.
India has the most snakebites, more than any other country each year, and some 10,000 or more fatalities each year a result of these snake bites. Numbers of people, around 72 per cent of India's population live in smaller villages and rural communities (India at the time of writing was home to about 17.5 per cent of the earth's human population), less than adequate access to antivenin are factors in these high numbers.
This compares to Australia where the snakes are equally as venomous where there are typically less than five deaths each year from snakebites.
India’s Wildlife Protection Act and its various schedules protect India’s wildlife. Catching snakes from houses and gardens and transporting them back to the wild is an important task and an exciting, if not dangerous way, of earning a living. You never know what you are going to find.
On a leisurely afternoon drive around Mysore we spot Snake Prakash on his rounds. We stop and speak to our snake catcher friend to see what today’s catch has been. Here in plastic jars are two Indian Cobra’s ready for release.
Snake Prakash’s life, as his name suggests, is snakes. He is fascinated by them as I am. And so far and after years of handling them he has never been bitten. This work is a family business, his father, a snake catcher before him.
As our friend drives away I hope that luck goes with him.
