chandigarh snake charmers drape spectacled cobras around their necks in the fashion of the gods and seem to magically direct their divine attendants hiss and fume at the sway and sound of a gourd flutes music charmers rake in a lot of money from the gullible devout with such acts of bravado but the truth is that several dirty secrets go towards rendering cobras impotent and charmers as safe as handling serpents as if fondling a frisky squirrel or stroking a pet rabbit the fact is the cobra may have the mouth stitched or the fangsvenom sacs secretly and crudely removed before presentation in the public domain in other words the victims of a devastating dentistry in the auspicious months charmers squat at shrines where the devout throng in droves with their hearts brimming with wishes and hopes of a better life little do the devout know what lies behind the terrifying swaying hood as they throw coins at the charmer in return for blessings and good luck at certain shrines of the tricity in fact this is actually snake poaching under the guise of snake charming as the wildlife protection act 1972 forbids capture from the wilderness and captive displayscobras are their charmers favourite because of their spectacular and menacing hoods as well as the potential threat of death from their venomous bite yet there is no threat at all by the time a cobra is ready to be charmed it has been tortured and mutilated to the degree that it cannot even defend itself let alone pose a threat the snakes fangs have been ripped out or crushed and venom glands crudely disabled by gouging them out or bursting them these methods dont simply disable the snakes only means of defence they remove its ability to even feed or digest essentially condemning the animal to an extended excruciating death once theyve wowed a crowd for a few coins theyre tossed aside to die as the charmer moves on to the next snake in his collection nonvenomous snakes are not spared either their mouths are often stitched shut again making slow starvation inevitable said arinita sandilya press officer wildlife sos which has seized and rescued 111 serpents from custody of charmers from shrines in agra mathura and vrindavan this month of shravansnake charming comes with a death sentence to the serpents they are on death row from the time they are captured from jungle hideouts and made to gulp down milk but the fact is that charmers keep captive cobras dehydrated days before the drinking session cobras are pure carnivores and nonmammalians who do not feed their hatchlings with milk they are lactose intolerant so when cobras are given milk after a prolonged period of induced thirst the serpents gulp it down to hydrate themselves but it leads to an allergic reaction and snakes die far away from the prying eyes of the lawenforcement agencies or the innocent eyes of the devout who had fed them milk in