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INDIA-8000-strong snake, gypsy rally on busy Kolka
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by tigers9 on February 12, 2009
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http://indiatoday.digitaltoday.in/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=28785§ionid=22&issueid=31&Itemid=1
8000-strong snake, gypsy rally on busy Kolkata square
Abhijit Dasgupta
Kolkata, February 12, 2009
Snakes and bears will rub shoulders with gypsies and snake-charmers in the heart of Kolkata on February 17 to protest against government apathy regarding the plight of the snake traders who are now deemed illegal and outlawed by the Wildlife Act. The rally, which will see some 8,000 snake-charmers and gypsies congregating at Esplanade has been organised by the Bedia Federation of India which will also mark its second anniversary on that day.
The Federation is the first organised attempt to bring together gypsies of all the country under one umbrella and launch a protest movement against the snake trade cartel which, though in a minority, is controlling the serum trade worth crores of rupees.
Internationally famous magician P.C. Sorcar Jr and State Transport Minister Subhas Chakraborty will be present as speakers at the rally. Incidentally, the Federation has links and support from the ruling CPI (M).
Raktim Das, general secretary of the Federation, who was almost killed from a snake bite on November 4, 2008, when he tried to save a viper speared by villagers at Mukundapur near Kolkata and had to take 26 serum injections to be back on his feet, said that the first ever rally of gypsies should dramatise and propagate the plight of the snake-charmers to bring national attention to the problem. "But we are not sure whether the police will allow the bears and snakes to be brought out in public since that is illegal. But these gypsies move along with the snakes as baggage and have no permanent home. So we expect them to carry the reptiles along with them. If the police choose to arrest us, we are ready...In the past, we have saved reptiles and handed them over to the forest department. We are prepared to do so again but only if the gypsies are given alternative livelihoods," he added.
Das said that one snail strike yielded 12 grams of venom with the international market rate being Rs 10,000 per gram. "So if we calculate accordingly taking a snake's lifetime as eight years, it is worth Rs 2 crore given two poison yields per month per snake. So if one snake costs Rs 2 crore, it is obvious that the cartel would want to monopolise the trade and breed snakes in private farms and not allow the snake-charmers their share though it is mainly these gypsies who supply the snakes at nominal rates, uneducated as they are. We want snake-charmers and gypsies to be given legal rights to sell the venom. The price will then naturally come down and these gypsies, who are a vanishing tribe, may get a fresh lease of life," he said.
Das said that the Federation would propose that these gypsies with their inherent and generations-old knowledge of snakes could be employed in remote health centres where doctors were unable to detect various forms of snake bites. "Not too many people know that even now, almost 10 lakh people die of snake bites annually and most of them because doctors do not know how to treat the victims. Most victims are taken to quacks who are worse. These gypsies can spot and differentiate between snake bites and know which serum to use for which bite. They could be a huge help to the medical fraternity," Das added.
However, the top priority was to take snakes off the wildlife list since they were mostly found in human habitats and helped in maintaining ecological balance. "Thirty per cent of our agro produce are destroyed by pests like mice. Snakes eat these mice and help to preserve the produce. There are some water snakes which eat mosquitoes as well. Snakes need to be protected," Das said.
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