August 30, 2002	Friday	Jamadi-us-Saani 20, 1423

PATNA: Indian snake charmers taking part in a week-long carnival here are urging people to re-think their venomous attitudes towards deadly snakes including king cobras and pit vipers, insisting the reptiles are “great friends.”

More than 300 men, women, and children belonging to the country’s traditional snake charming “Karori” community sang and danced before large crowds in the eastern Indian state of Patna, along with their pet pythons and cobras, for nominal fees.

“We even performed free on one of the days of the week-long carnival in return for an assurance from our audience that they would not kill snakes,” said Kamal Raut, president of the Indian Karori Union.

He said “blind fear” and pressure from India’s billion-plus population had put several species of snake at risk of extinction due to excessive hunting.

“Not all snakes are harmful. In fact, they are our friends. But snakes are being killed so widely that future generations may not see several species of snakes.”

Raut added that India’s 50,000-strong Karori community was worried about their future as snake charming was a vanishing trade.

The US-based animal rights group People for Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) claims that snakes are made ill because they consume milk offered to them by snake charmers.

“Milk causes the snake severe dehydration and allergic reactions and often dysentery,” PETA said.

Under the Wildlife Protection Act of India, it is illegal to injure, catch or own snakes, even for the country’s traditional snake charmers.—AFP