Snake! The very word sends a chill through us, and most people try to kill a snake as soon as they see one. Yet three-quarters of the 90 snake species in Bangladesh are non-venomous — something many do not know. So people often kill harmless snakes by mistake.

There are exceptions: people who know about non-venomous snakes and come forward to save them. Thanks to one such young man, a non-venomous snake known as the 'kal nagini' survived.

He is Rifat Al Asad, 29, from the Koneshwar area of Koneshwar union in Damudya upazila, Shariatpur.

On Sunday morning (16 June), a young man named Borhan from the same area caught a snake. Its head was long and flat, the front of its mouth squarish. Its body was light green with dark bands, with round yellow and orange spots along the spine from the neck to the tip of the tail. Locals know it as the 'kal nagini'. Borhan did not know it was harmless, took it to be venomous and kept it trapped in a bottle.

On hearing of it, Rifat asked for the snake to be released. But Borhan handed it to others instead of letting it go. In the afternoon Rifat saw them about to kill the snake by dunking the bottle in water. He persuaded them to free it and took it home, and it was later released in an open field.

"We know very little about snakes. We think almost all snakes are venomous, so we kill them as soon as we see them. That is why many non-venomous snakes are killed now and then. The 'kal nagini' is one such harmless snake. Its bite does not kill people, but people kill these snakes without understanding. We need awareness," Rifat Al Asad said.

"Non-venomous snakes eat insects and help keep nature in balance. I think everyone should learn about snakes. We must protect the ones that are not venomous," he added.

Sohana Bilkis, head of the zoology department at Madaripur Government College, said the snake known in Bangladesh as the 'kal nagini' is called the ornate flying snake in English, though it cannot fly. It usually moves through the tips of trees, blending in with creepers. Its venom is not lethal to humans; such snakes generally use venom to subdue their prey, she said.

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