Akash Jadhav, The ‘SarpMitra’ From Ahmed Nagar Has Rescued More Than 300 Species Of Animals

Akash Jadhav

The animal rescue activist works actively to eradicate snake related superstitions from society.

Are you the one who believes that the snake's partner will come to kill you if even by mistake you have killed a snake? Then Akash Jadhav is the person who will help you forget this misconception. The animal rescue activist from Ahmed Nagar works dedicatedly for the cause of saving snakes. He has helped several people to come out from snake-related superstitions with his captivating and informative videos on Facebook and YouTube.

Akash Jadhav chose snake-rescue as a career choice due to poverty. This was the only option that came to his mind to help his family to some extent. Akash Jadhav hails from a poor family from Ahmed Nagar, he dropped out of school when he was in 7th standard as his family could not afford his studies anymore. After dropping out of school Akash learned snake rescuing from one of his relatives Sunil Bhambal in Satara. Sunil introduced him to a number of snake species and made him master of this art within a year.

After training, he returned to Ahmed Nagar in 2008 to start his own practice. Akash is extremely skilled in his work, soon he started getting multiple calls in a day. Catching a snake is a tricky job it may take from few minutes to few hours, so it became difficult for him to attend all the calls. He decided to expand his work and appointed a team of 7 people to do the job. They are Atul Pakhare, Nawaz Sheikh, Rishikesh Jadhav, Shiraj Sayyed, Siddhant Waghchaure, Rishikesh PArdeshi, and Ankit Pakhare. The team has saved as many as 300 kinds of animals in rescue operations.

Akash knew that many people die due to snake bites as rarely do people know what first-aid is required in such cases. And many snakes are killed due to superstitions prevalent in them. So, he decided that he will create awareness about these things so that the lives of snakes and humans can be saved at the right time. Akash says " It is really sad that we still believe in such things in the 21st century, and we kill these creatures out of misconceptions, that have come from nowhere." He bought a projector and started showing videos related to snakes and the first aid process for snake bites. But his work of animal rescue kept him so occupied that it became nearly difficult to go out from Ahmed Nagar regularly so he started a Facebook page related to snake rescue. The page became extremely popular with its viewers, then he started a YouTube channel for the same. The channel has more than 40 lakh subscribers now.

Akash wants that people should come out of age-old superstitions and must not harm animals. These animals also have equal rights to survive like humans. He says ‘ I feel a special connection with them since childhood. Seeing them harmed by humans disturbs me to a great extent. I will continue spreading the right information that is helpful and keep saving animals throughout my life."