A python 10 feet long and weighing 15 kg has been rescued from a paddy field in Gopalpur village of Damurhuda upazila in Chuadanga. Locals spotted the snake at around 4pm on Thursday (28 August) when it became tangled in a rice harvester.

Eyewitnesses said panic spread among villagers when the python got caught in the harvesting machine. When many moved to kill it, local youth Saddam Hossain stopped them. He skilfully put the snake in a sack and took it home. The snake bit him, but as it is not venomous he came to no harm.

On receiving the news, officials of the upazila forest department and the Khulna Wildlife Conservation Division recovered the python from Saddam's house at around midnight. Preparations are under way to release it in the Sundarbans.

Bakhtiar Hamid, founder of the Chuadanga environmental organisation Pankouri, said it is a native python, or moyal snake, known scientifically as the Indian rock python. This is the first time this completely non-venomous species has been caught in Chuadanga, he said.

Damurhuda upazila forest officer Mizanur Rahman said it is initially thought that the snake was carried in on the currents of the Mathabhanga and Bhairab rivers because of floods and heavy rain.

Upazila assistant commissioner (land) KH Tasfiqur Rahman said pythons like this are not usually seen in the area. As there is no sanctuary locally, the snake has been handed over to the Khulna Wildlife Conservation Division for release in the Sundarbans.

Source: Jagonews24. First published in Bengali on The Agro News.