Chennai: People of the Irula tribes in Kancheepuram near Chennai, whose lives have been restricted to catching snakes in Tamil Nadu, are elated to see some of their relatives making the headlines and news in Florida for pulling out hefty Burmese pythons in the Everglades National Park, a vast wetland and forest habitat covering nearly 2,000 square kilometers in south Florida.
Masi Sadaiyan and Vadivel Gopal, two Irula tribals from Chengalpet are in Florida for a two-month pilot python detection project approved by the Florida Wildlife Commission and funded by the University of Florida to bring two expert Irula snake catchers from TN. "I saw my fellow villagers rescuing the world's heaviest pythons with our traditional techniques with the use of crowbar, etc. All our staffers and villagers around the Madras Crocodile Bank are elated to see those pictures and videos on social media", said a beaming K. Munusamy, who handles captive crocodiles at the Madras Crocodile Bank (MCB).
"The tribes trained by India's celebrated herpetologist Romulus Whitaker are now teaming up with Florida's wildlife authorities to identify Burmese pythons that were released in US as pets during the 1980s. The US is now capturing these invasive species to protect their local wildlife", explained Yamini Bhaskar, assistant director, Centre for Herpetology, MCB.
This is the second time that the duo is on a global assignment looking out for snakes. Last year, the same team spent a few weeks in Thailand rescuing venomous snakes. It's there in the DNA of Irulas to catch snakes safely without harming them and now the tribal skills are technically transferred to learned foreign biologists, adds Yamini.
According to MCB sources, Burmese pythons are one of the largest snakes in the world, growing to 6 metres. They are found in India, Myanmar and nearby Southeast Asian countries. But now they are found in Florida as a result of accidental or intentional releases by pet owners.
A few years ago, Whitaker contacted Professor Frank Mazzotti at the University of Florida telling him that the Irulas of Tamil Nadu are the best snake catchers in the world and it would be useful to do a pilot project with two of these experts to study the problem and to teach local American snake catchers some of the Irula techniques in locating pythons. This has started yielding results with the duo so far catching 27 pythons, sources said.
