Four Traverncore Wolf snakes rescued from a house in Chembur

The snakes were rescued from a house in Chembur

A snake rescue call in Chembur has left the snake rescuers community in Mumbai surprised as not one but four Traverncore Wolf snakes were rescued from a house in Chembur by Volunteers of NGO Spreading Awareness on Reptiles and Rehabilitation Programme (SARRP).

According to Wildlife Lover and Snake Rescuer Chitra Pednekar, on December 12, Arbaaz Khan and Chandresh Choudhary, rescuers and educators of SARRP NGO received a call regarding a snake being spotted in a house around 5 pm in Gadkari (Chembur). Upon reaching the spot, the caller said that he had seen two snakes inside his house.

The rescue team managed to rescue not one but four Traverncore Wolf snakes from a house in Chembur

"The rescuers inspected the area where the snakes were last spotted and they saw more than one snake hiding in a crack. At first, both the rescuers were confused as the snakes were similar as to a Common krait as the coloration (morph) as snakes were blackish in color, but as soon the snakes were removed from their hiding spot by poking a thin stick, the rescuers noticed the bands and the body structure were similar as to a Common wolf snake, but the species rescued didn't seem like a Common wolf snake (Lycodon Aulicus) as the bands coloration were yellowish in color so they decided to confirm the identity of the species from a senior rescuer and contacted Chaitanya Keer to confirm the same. Chaitanya said that it didn't seem like a Common wolf snake guided the rescuers to do a scale count on the rescued species. The two rescuers then gathered information on the scale count of the Travancore wolf snake from Google and to their surprise, the scale count matched to Travancore wolf snake, a species which is not found in Mumbai. This is the first official record and sighting of this species in Mumbai. Post which, an intimation was given to the respected Forest Department official of the rescue," added Pednekar.

The rescuers are trying to solve the mystery as to where the snake might have reached Mumbai. On this, Chitra Pednekar said, "There are several possibilities as from where the species would have come from. The rescuers stated that it might have either come from any truck or vehicle or else they might have come from the adjacent BARC reserve forest area as most of the area in BARC remains unexplored. We don't know what all kinds of reptiles can be found, as previously Arbaaz has rescued two Albino Wolf Snake from there and a couple of barred wolf snake which are to be seen very rarely. Also, because of the mating season, there could be a possibility that these snakes were found in one house adjacent to a hilly dense forest area like BARC."

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