Tiny tots show the way, handle python with ease

Feb. 6: It was a scene that had to be seen to be believed. Children as young as three and four consented to touch a 7ft long python, and even wear it garland- like as part of their nature study programme in a school in Bellary.
Their safe encounter with the Indian rock python was made possible courtesy two brothers, Thaheer Sait and Sameer Sait, who were invited by the school management to bring it to their classrooms and teach them more about the reptile.
Mr. Santosh Martin of the school, Genesis, who took the unusual step of bringing the tiny tots into close contact with the snake, clearly believes that no one is too young to receive a lesson in ecology and to be told that snakes must be protected in the interest of saving the environment.
While some of the teachers drew far away from the python as it raised its hood in the classroom, the children happily came forward to touch it, intrigued by its black and grey colours. Three-year-old Hiya from the nursery and Manikanta from the LKG were happy to wear the python round their shoulders, garland-like, displaying no fear whatsoever of the reptile.
A babble of questions like why the python was cold to touch and whether it could hear followed as the children’s curiousity was aroused. They readily posed for photographs with the snake, clearly thrilled at the experience.
Once the lesson ended, the Sait brothers took the python away to release it into the Sandur forests.
As a sequel to the morning with the snake the children were asked questions on their experience.