Jyoti Kumari is doing a great service in this lock down period. She is rescuing reptiles and birds from twin dangers one where the animals and birds may get killed or second they may cause terrible harm to human beings. She rescues wild life and human beings both. Saving owls is a real challenge as goes with owl many distressful myths said sources.
Jyoti works in the North Division of the Tiger Project here in Daltonganj. She has a similar and most efficient rescuer Manish Kumar with her who is GIS (geographic information system) expert in the Palamu Tiger Project. Both are good rescuer of animals and birds said sources.
She said on April 24 she rescued a 10 feet long Indian Rock Python at Satbarwa in this district. This python was hiding in the midst of chaff bags. Jyoti said the rescued python was then released in the jungles.
Manish Kumar said now people give calls to them. This is a good thing. The reptiles and birds are not harmed but people want them to be saved. This is a great change among the public for the animal and birds said Manish Kumar.
Jyoti Kumari said, “We have mixed experiences. People call us. We rush to rescue the animals mostly snakes and sometimes birds too where we are cheered but at times there are people who just fail to understand and appreciate our work.”
On April 19 she and her co rescuer Manish rushed to rescue a10 feet long rat snake. She said this rat snake was in a house which was locked but neighbour had seen this reptile from their roof top and wanted us to rescue it. This 10 feet long snake was contained after great many efforts just because the house where it was slithering was locked from outside.
On March 29 in the first phase of lockdown Manish and she saved a one metre long russel viper snake at Baralota locality in Daltonganj.
She said this snake was over fed as a result it was finding it too difficult to slither and that helped us to putt this snake in our bag.
All rescued reptiles are released in their natural habitat like dense forest where are other things to support their living she said.
Inspiration and motivation for this work come from an NGO Adhikari Foundation For Nature Conservation as Jyoti said this Foundation helps them not with tips how to go about our rescuing snakes which may pose serious threats to our own lives as well but motivates us also to do this no matter what others comment.
She said their team rescues birds too. People now ask us to save bird like the one Sun bird which we saved when a caller asked us to save it and we got it restored to its mother bird as well. This Sun bird was in distress. The swarm of ants were there on her body to make this small bird die a painful death but the bird was saved.
A mottled wood owl whose right leg was fractured was treated and saved by her team. She said to save this mottled wood owl she had to contact a vet doctor in Gujarat who through telemedicine helped saved this owl.
Lizards too are saved by her as on April 26 a monitor lizard 52 inch in size was saved by her at Satbarwa.
