Indus Valley Times

38 days of constant observation and monitoring, the eggs hatched

Forest department officials celebrate birth of the baby snakes

By A K Sahoo

Bhubaneswar, July 1: Officials of the Odisha forest department, wildlife activists and nature lovers in Odisha on Wednesday appeared quite jubilant and overjoyed after they witnessed a rare spectacle – baby python hatchlings emerging one after another out of over two dozen eggs.

The eggs, abandoned by their mother 18 days after incubation, were incubated completely in artificial conditions.

On May 22, the residents of Niala village in Khurda district spotted a huge python guarding nearly 30 eggs it had laid in a cave. Apprehending that the giant lizard might eat up the eggs, the villagers informed the forest department officials and honorary Wildlife Warden of Khurda, Subhendu Mallick.

The forest department immediately rushed to the spot and raised a barricade around the cave to protect the eggs from the predatory giant lizard. A drone camera was also deployed to keep a vigil over the moment of the mother python and monitor the conditions of the eggs.

However, after incubating the eggs for 18 days the mother python escaped to the wild. Subsequently, the eggs were taken to Khurda forest range office for artificial incubation.

“We used to monitor the conditions of the eggs every day. We would also measure their (eggs) weights and temperatures on a daily basis for ensuring safe birth. It gives us utmost satisfaction that our experiment has borne fruits and at least 15 eggs have hatched today. While ants have destroyed three eggs, 12 more eggs will hatch soon,” said Subhendu.

He informed that once the entire hatching process is over, the baby snakes will be released into the wild.

“We will release the baby snakes at the place where their mother was located with the eggs. After 8 to 10 days, they will shed their first hide and be able to take food on their own,” said senior forest officials.

The births of the baby snakes were celebrated by the forest officials by cutting cakes and distributing sweets to all the people who were part of the novel exercise.

In a similar instance in June 2016, 22 python eggs found from forest were hatched successfully through artificial incubation in Rairakhol area of Sambalpur district.

The villagers of Dehurisahi, a forest fringe village, had found that a python had laid 28 eggs close to the village boundary. Fearing that python hatchlings could pose a threat to their lives and domestic animals, the villagers had taken the python and eggs 18 km away from the place.

Wildlife warden Subhendu Mallick with the help of forest department officials had then facilitated hatching of those eggs through artificial incubation.

(This news is sourced from A K Sahoo’s Blogspot page)