Four red sand boa snakes were stolen from a locked chamber of reptile house in Mahendra Chaudhary Zoological Park popularly known as Chhatbir Zoo on the intervening night of July 18-19 putting a question mark on the safety of wild animals and birds in the zoo.
Dr Manish Kumar, field director of the zoo told The Pioneer that the snakes were not from the zoo. They were the court property and were handed over to the zoo by district forest officers of Jalandhar and Patiala. They were kept in glass chamber of zoo’s reptile house here.
“Sand boas are not a rare species and commonly available in the different parts of the country,” added Dr Manish.
The local police have registered a case of theft against unknown persons. The forensic experts’ also took all the samples or imprints from the chamber.
Police told The Pioneer that on the basis of circumstantial evidences, thieves were well equipped and used a vacuum machine and other tools to remove the unbreakable glass of the chamber and stole the snakes.
While elaborating the modus operandi of the thieves, police added they made their entry by scaling the zoo’s boundary wall and then the wall of the reptile house. They first tried to use a cutter to open the chamber but when they failed; following this they removed the nut bolts and then the heavy glass of the chamber. As the snakes were in hibernation, thieves used battery operated vacuum machine to extract them, police added.
There were six sand boa snakes in the chamber and after now there is only two were left, added zoo management.
Meanwhile, the zoo management has already initiated departmental inquiry to ascertain the role of insiders, as there were six watchmen on that particular night when the incident took place.