Snake Dancing dilema

For the last few years, I was getting information about an age old tradition of snake dancing on a particular date of year but could not locate the place or date in specific. This year the situation was different. Few of my friends have already got the information and asked me if I am interested to go with them or not. I had no reason to reject them, so I hopped on their bike and off we go.

It was a very interior village and I am not disclosing the name because I don’t want to promote this practice. Anyway when we reached there, first we located the people who actually do the performance. By talking with them we came to know about many things. This snake dancing on the occasion of Lakhsmi Puja (a celebration of the goddess of wealth) is almost 150yrs old. All through the rainy season they catch the snakes in and around their village. And they only catch Monocellate Cobra and Spectacled Cobra because of their spectacular hood display. Then on this occasion, they perform the snake dancing for 3 consecutive days and release the snakes in the nearby river. (well, I was skeptical about how many snake will survive after the release.) Just before the ceremony, the organizers have emptied the venom glands of the snakes by making them bite repeatedly into papaya stalk. This way the dancers will not have to worry about the bites they may receive during the show.

At the scheduled time they transferred all the snakes to a small stage that was set in the fair ground. Each snake was in its own earthen pot. There were total 30-40 snakes of various size and age group but all are mostly adult only a few sub-adults. Then they started the show. There were 3-4 performers on the stage and a few other men to assist them. Performers were bringing out snakes one by one, played with them a little bit, then put it into its pot. It was a modest show. The music was deafening. A big crowd had gathered around the stage and they were very enthusiastic. Dancers were playing with 1-2 snakes at a time. Even I noticed to get bitten a few times but they didn’t care. This went on for approximately half an hour and came to an end.

One thing struck in my mind, most of the snakes were injured. They have injury on their head and several places on their body. If this is the type of performance that I saw was going on, then they don’t have any chance of having that extent of injuries. When I expressed my concern to my friends, they showed me the pictures from the first day of the event. This took me by surprise.

People are holding 5-8 snakes together over their head. Snakes are biting each other ferociously; they are biting the performers also. Blood was seen everywhere. The performers were even seen rolling on the stage over the snakes, which is severely dangerous for the snakes. I was wondering how this could go on un-noticed by the forest dept. Then from a member of the organizers I came to know that forest dept had stopped the program for 3 years in the past. But like all other activity in our country, they had made some arrangement with the local forest dept. So I guess this will go on for another few years in the future.

Living Fossil, Himalayan Newt

This year Durga Puja was a bit different. I didn’t go to pandels to see goddess Durga but went to a small mountain village to see an animal which is the only representative of its family in india. It is Himalayan Newt. Though it is not uncommon in Darjeeling Himalayas, we choose Namthing Lake as there is an established conservation site of Himalayan Newts, which greatly increases our chance of seeing one.

When we reached Namthing Pokhri, it was raining. Rain may be a disturbance for us humans but being an amphibian, it is a happy time for Himalayan Newts. We searched the lake for it but with no success. In the next day we went to the site again but this time we didn’t took chance and asked the local people for help. This time after a few minutes of searching, yes, it was there. To be truthful, in the first impression it looked very ugly.

Himalayan Newt, Tylototriton verrucosus, is an amphibian. It also has a tail. So, it looks like a hybrid between a lizard and a toad. It has a moist, warty skin, a laterally compressed tail for swimming and well developed limbs for walking. Its total length is from 130-200mm of which almost half the length is tail. It has a dark brown coloration which helps it to stay hidden in the submerged vegetation during the day. But in the breeding time the males sport a orange red belly color, which they use to attract females. It is a nocturnal animal so it comes out of water in the night to feed on the ground. It generally eats insects, earth worms, tadpoles etc. in India it is found in  North Bengal, Meghalaya, Sikkim, Manipur and Arunachal Pradesh.

Though it is a lower animal, it too has an elaborate courtship ritual. First the male shows its orange red belly color to the approaching female. Then the ritual begins. The male also calls like frogs and toads but in a lower pitch. After the ritual male grabs the female by the foreleg and stay mounted for an hour. Male then deposit a bag of sperm which the female picks up with her anal opening. Then the female lays eggs in the submerged vegetation of a stagnant pool.

One more interesting thing about this animal is its regeneration power. We all have seen how geckos lose their tail and regenerate but Himalayan Newt have gone further and can regenerate even a bitten limb.

Like all the other amphibians Himalayan Newt also hibernates in the winter season to hide from the cold weather. It generally buries itself into the soil 6” to several feet deep. But this cannot save it from the other enemies like habitat destruction, use of pesticide or the fungal infection. So the future does not look  very bright for this little creature which came to earth even before the dinosaurs.