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Sangath, www.sangath.com, is looking to build a centre for services, training and research and seeks to buy approx 1500 to 2000 sq mtrs land betweeen Mapusa and Bambolim and surrounding rural areas. Please contact: contac...@sangath.com or yvo...@sangath.com or ph+91-9881499458 http://lists.goanet.org/pipermail/goanet-goanet.org/2009-July/180028.html ------------------------------------------------------------------------ The Accidental Activist - Creepy Crawlies By Venita Coelho My maids think that I am very strange. They are completely forbidden to kill any snakes they encounter in or outside the house. We regularly have snakes falling from the roof. I merely pick up a broom and gently sweep them into the garden. The bais are amazed that we don't do what everyone does - which is batter them to death on sight. They should have seen us five years ago when we had our first encounter with a snake in Goa. Mother and I were chatting with a visitor from Mumbai when we suddenly saw a snake on the floor. With one accord, visitor and all, we leapt on the sofa together and shrieked. I climbed over assorted furniture, never touching a foot to the floor and got to the phone. I begged the man from Green Rescue to save us. The snake meanwhile dived under a trunk. Our saviour arrived on a bicycle. He looked about thirteen years old and was covered in pimples. He strolled into the house, found the snake, picked it up and put it in his pocket. Then he strolled out again, whistling - leaving three very stunned and sheepish people standing on the sofa. It had been a harmless grass snake. The first monsoon I spent in Moira, we hadn't finished the work on the house. The cupboards were without doors and many of the windows had nothing but grills on them. I had just accepted a work assignment in Mumbai and my Goa friends gave me a 'good luck' dinner where the wine flowed freely. I stumbled into the house late at night to be greeted by hysterical dogs. They were barking and jumping up and down and frantically signaling that something was wrong. In my fuddled state, I just chucked them out of the bedroom and locked the door. I woke the next morning to find that a lot of things from my cupboard were lying on the floor. I picked them up and threw them back in, and was turning away when I suddenly thought 'uh oh - that shelf has eyes'. Not just eyes, but one large bulging coil. I could tell from the markings that it was a python. Frantic calls to Green Rescue produced a teenager with dreadlocks, our pimpled friend, and one assistant. The python had his cozy snooze rudely interrupted. Irritated, he uncoiled his entire length and my heart stopped. He was twenty foot long and fat around the middle. The youngest assistant took one look and dived out of the door. The dogs squeaked and vanished. The two rescuers struggled to get the snake under control. He was one long length of pure powerful muscle. Finally they wrestled him into a sack and carried him off to release him in the forest. What a story I had to tell at my first day of work in Mumbai! I made up my mind that I had to start recognizing the snakes of Goa if I was not going to die young of heart failure. There are only three poisonous snakes in Goa - the cobra, the common krait, and the Russells viper. Buy Rahul's book - 'The Call of the Snake' - and you can learn to recognize them in no time. The harmless ones are easily dealt with - just sweep them off into the garden. For the poisonous ones there is always Green Rescue or Rahul Alvares. The book also tells you how to snake proof your house, if you don't have my casual attitude to living with them. In the last six months I have dealt with eight snakes. Most of them we found sitting bewildered in the middle of the living room floor. The living room roof obviously houses a nest, but I am loath to remove it. They are all harmless grass snakes and I really don't mind sharing my space with them. Scorpions are another matter. But then again, scorpions are what first convinced me that I had to learn to live with all the creepy crawlies that would wander into my life. New to Goa, unused to dealing with things with more than two legs, when I found a huge six inch scorpion on the floor I fetched a broom and whacked it. The scorpion cringed back and raised its two front legs to ward off the blows. Futilely it tried to save itself from the broom. I stopped, unable to continue hitting it, shaken by the thought that this creature too wanted to live. But by that time the scorpions back was broken. I gritted my teeth and delivered the death blow - and swore that no creature would ever be killed in my house again. A few months ago there was perfect silence from baby. That always means trouble. I found her crouched in the corner, gently patting a huge black scorpion. 'Bua' she explained to me, her word for any insect. All the scorpion was doing was backing away from her. It had no intention of attacking, it just wanted to get away from its tormentor. I grabbed baby. Then I got the broom and swept the scorpion out of the house. If I needed any proof that scorpions are indeed shy, harmless creatures, I got it that day. So the next time you encounter a snake or a scorpion go ahead and reach for the broom - but only to sweep it out into the garden. Why kill something that is every bit as Goan as you are? (ENDS) =========================================================================== The above article appeared in the July 21, 2009 edition of the Herald, Goa
