In an unusual turn of events, a police meet in a newly constructed town hall in Latehar’s collectorate building had to be stopped after an unexpected guest–a 10 feet long python—from one of the neighbouring jungles was found resting at a cosy corner inside the hall.
Cops from Palamu, Garhwa and Latehar were attending a workshop on investigation techniques and latest developments in the law when one of them spotted the black, fat python resting behind one of the doors in the hall, police sources said.
Latehar’s Superintendent of Police, Prashant Anand, said that the incident did not cause any chaos as the cops were already aware of the presence of snakes and other animals in the jungles of Latehar. “There was no chaos. One of the attendees at the workshop spotted the python and informed others. Soon, we informed the concerned forest officials who came and rescued to snake on the same day,” said Anand.
He added that Latehar is surrounded by dense forest and such incidents were common in parts of the town. “There have been very few cases of man-animal conflict here.
Whenever an animal loses his way and enters human habitat, we quickly inform the forest department and the animal is rescued as soon as possible,” Anand said.
This, however, is not the first instance when a giant python made it to urban habitat. Jharkhand has witnessed several such incidents in the past. A few years ago, commoners mistook a real python for a dummy in Ranchi’s Siddhu Kanho Park.
Forest officials were informed only after the python started moving while social media addicts were busy clicking selfie with the serpent.
Jharkhand has a total geographical area of 79,714 square kilometers.
The total recorded forest area of the state is 23,605 square kilometre, which is 29.61 per cent of the geographical area of the State. The forests here have a decent population of elephants, deer, tigers, sambhar, jackals, fox and many species that are said to be nearing extinction.
During the latest tiger census conducted by the Government of India, it was found that Palamu Tiger Reserve has five tigers.