A section of certified snake rescue volunteers enrolled in the State’s ‘Sarpa Mitra’ network in rural areas of Kozhikode district have registered a strong protest against the Forest department, alleging a lack of adequate administrative and logistical support to continue their work.

The volunteers, mainly those operating under the Thamarassery forest range, allege that the Forest department has stopped collecting rescued snakes from them. They say they are now forced to bear the cost of transporting the rescued snakes to range offices themselves to complete the legal formalities.

The volunteers point out that they undertake snake rescue as a service while doing other odd jobs for a living. They say they receive no additional income or grant from the government for the work. According to them, spending money out of their own pockets to transport rescued snakes for release is hardly a viable option.

“We have to travel around 25 kilometres from Mukkom to reach the Thamarassery range office and hand over the rescued snakes. Many of my friends are withdrawing from the field because of the apathy of forest squads in providing on-the-spot assistance to collect rescued snakes,” says a local rescuer from Mukkom. He points out that the withdrawal of volunteers from the field is likely to leave upland residents in difficulty, as they have no other easily accessible options during emergencies.

Meanwhile, Forest department sources say the increasing number of rescue calls from upland areas and the shortage of field-level staff often hamper their routine departmental duties. They add that range offices need more rescue vehicles and support staff to fully address the concerns raised by local volunteers.