Greed lands snake charmers in soup at Tirupur

The trio, hired to catch a few snakes, kept releasing the captured snakes back to get paid more from the residents of the locality.  They claimed that they caught more than 80 reptiles which raised an alarm among the residents. One of the residents saw the snake charmers releasing the snakes and called the police in. A week ago, the people in the locality saw a couple of snakes. Fearing that they might harm their children they called the snake charmers belonging to a particular community for help. The trio living in Manamadurai in Sivaganga district postponed their visit by a week citing various reasons. 

On persuasion, Kannan (50) and his nephews Paandi (39) and Murugan (30) came to Chettipalayam on Thursday. After heavy bargaining they were promised Rs 150 per snake. The trio started off well by impressing the residents by showing a big catch in short time. They put the snakes in a few sacks and did not show them to the residents afterwards. “They warned us not to go near the snakes saying that they are very poisonous ones,” said a resident.  During the course of the day, the snake charmer kept on catching more reptiles and claimed that they have altogether caught 80 snakes. Residents grew suspicious of the numbers and one of them climbed the roof of a house to check what was happening. He saw one of the snake charmers releasing a few snakes from a sack and immediately alerted other residents. They surrounded the trio and informed the forest department. They were handed over to the department along with a few thousand rupees the charmers collected from the residents. 

“During inquiry the trio confessed that they caught a few non-venomous snakes from the nearby fields and brought them to Chettipalayam in sacks. Then they started cheating the people by releasing and catching the snakes again and again. They had a few clothes stuffed in their sacks to cheat people by claiming that the sacks were filled with snakes,” Forest Range Officer for Tirupur S. Mahes told DTNext. 

A total of 25 non-venomous snakes were rescued from them. The trio claimed that they were indulging in the act for want of money. A compounded fine was imposed and they were left free, as they were first time offenders. The rescued snakes were released in the Amaravathi Forest on Friday.