NAROWAL: Rescue 1122 staff caught 29 venomous snakes from an under-construction house in Alam Town, Antuwali, in Shakargarh tehsil on Tuesday.

District Emergency Officer (Rescue 1122) Engineer Aurangzeb told Dawn that they received a call from one Mushtaq, a resident of Alam Town, who said that a venomous snake had entered his under-construction house.

Acting on the complaint, the DEO said, Rescue 1122 teams from Shakargarh were dispatched to the locality. On reaching the under-construction house, the rescuers started lifting bricks and other construction material from there in search of the snake.

He said that during the search, the rescuers found a large number of venomous snakes hiding under a pile of bricks. He said as the rescuers started removing bricks, the snakes slithered into a hole dug for laying a sewerage line.

The DEO said that the rescuers, after three-hour-long hectic efforts, caught 29 venomous snakes during the operation. About their size, he said that the snakes ranged from one-and-a-half-foot to five feet.

Meanwhile, on knowing about the presence of such a large number of snakes, locals gathered outside the under-construction house.

Two area residents, Naeem and Arif Hussain, said that because of the recent flood in the area, a large number of snakes and other wild animals were dislocated and some of these might have entered residential areas.

The DEO said that after catching the snakes, the rescuers released them in the wild.

Deputy Commissioner Syed Hassan Raza says that as snakes are a part of wildlife, the rescuers caught them alive instead of killing these creatures and later released in the forest area.

He says that in case of such emergency situations, people should immediately call Rescue 1122 for help and avoid acting impulsively.

Published in Dawn, November 26th, 2025