Pics: Brijesh Garodi
Daijiworld Media Network – Mangalore
 
Mangalore, Jun 1: Joy S Mascarenhas is a herpetologist, a person with interest and expert knowledge on the natural history of reptiles.

Mascarenhas, a real estate businessman by profession, has a keen interest in snakes and is an expert in catching and handling snakes in the city.

He has caught almost a thousand snakes, including 60 King Cobras, from various places. On an average, he gets a call a day to catch snakes and till date he has been bitten by two snakes, one of them his 97th cobra.

His passion for snakes dates back to his childhood. He is not professionally trained, amazingly enough, he learnt the art of handling snakes by watching television channels and practicing it!

Mascarenhas caught his first snake (a cobra) in 2006 and King Cobra in 2007, and made headlines in almost every channels and newspapers. He has also trained another snake catcher, Ashok, for two years making him capable of catching King Cobras.

He says, "This distinctive habit of catching snakes has become a routine now." He has keen interest in collecting snakes, but as government does not permit this, the snakes caught are released into thick forests like Charmadi, Agumbe. Around 20 King Cobras have been donated to Pilikula Biological Park, Mangalore. King Cobra, Russell Viper, Krait, Wolf Snake and various other varieties of snakes are caught by him.

According to Mascarenhas, snakes eat rats and control their population. If all snakes are killed, the rat population will grow rapidly and no food grains will be left on earth. About 40 percent of the food crops is been destroyed by rats. Snake is the only animal which could reach rat’s burrow and catch them. Hence, he advices people not to kill snakes as it helps in maintaining biological balance.

Contact

Joy S Mascarenhas
+91 9743432626
Snakejoy1@gmail.com.