mumbai snakes dont usually slither through the concrete jungle that mumbai is unless one speaks of odd islands of greenery like malabar hill pali hill sion malad borivli and goregaon so what do you do if you encounter onemost people call up the fire brigade which maintains a roster of snake catchers who can also be reached through the local search engine just dial the interesting bit is that these snake catchers often called snake men by localsare your average joes not the frumpy men you probably have in mind people panic after spotting a snake and sometimes kill it but most snakes found here are nonvenomous the least people can do is call us says rajesh sanap 23 who is pursuing higher studies after graduating from patkar college i get calls almost every day there have been times when i have rescued as many as seven snakessanap is a known face in marol andheri east where he resides snakes are not difficult to spot in the area which is close to aarey milk colony from where sanap receives the most number of callspassionate about his work he has published scientific papers on geckos and scorpions found in the colony his prized rescues include a monitor lizard found at a house in the marol police colony and an olive ridley turtle which had washed ashore at the bandra bandstandparthiv sanghavi 33 has lost count of the snakes he has rescued till now this businessman rescued his first snake a boa constrictor in 2003 when his friends mentioned the reptiles presence in their locality in a casual conversationthe snake looked liked a russells viper which is venomous but i wasnt sure i was also afraid it might be killed by the locals when i caught it it turned out to be a boa i released it in the wild he sayssanghavis catches include the russells viper python and cobra his hobby inspired him to make a scientific study of snakes recently he completed a oneyear course in herpetology the study of amphibians frogs toads salamanders etc and reptiles from the bombay natural history society bnhssanghavi is upset that some people take to snake catching without a proper study of technique a person handling snakes needs to know a lot of things catching technique places where the reptiles can be released and how to respond to snakebites showing off should be the last thing a snake catcher should do he sayshandling snakes is not childs play and should not be taken up by youngsters for fun rescuing snakes is more in the nature of service to people and nature it should not be used to gain popularitythe first snake sameer kehimkar 27 caught was a common trinket found on the premises of his school in navi mumbai he was in standard v then now he is a graphic designer but his reptilian pursuit continues relating his most unforgettable encounter he says there was this python which would gobble up chickens from a